tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22013110158295267852024-03-18T16:14:13.440-07:00To Dare the GodsMark W. Kittellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767307312025397299noreply@blogger.comBlogger2311125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201311015829526785.post-56725900706817639342024-03-11T14:19:00.000-07:002024-03-11T15:18:30.425-07:00Delusional French director gets an Oscar for rewriting history in the Depp-Heard case<p> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="bo-p" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">I’m going to leave my
dictionary for a moment here to talk about a couple of recent events in Hollywood.
First is the involuntary manslaughter conviction of Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who
was the “armorer” on the set of the film when Alec Baldwin accidentally shot a
cinematographer during the production of the film <i>Rust</i>. At 24, Gutierrez-Reed was probably a little “young” to be an
armorer, but apparently her father is a well-known stuntman, marksman and
armorer who presumable passed on his “expertise” to his daughter. But according
to a <i>Variety</i> story, “Gutierrez Reed
acknowledged that she had only been working as an armorer for a few months, and
had no formal training.” </span></p>
<p class="bo-p" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Variety</i> noted that there is “no official certification process for
film armorers.” Since live rounds are not “technically” supposed to be used on
film sets, the chance for “carelessness” is obvious when one does show up unbeknownst. Bruce Lee’s son Brandon
Lee was killed by a live bullet on the set of <i>The Crow</i>; I recall that because the only job I could find that was
hiring people on the spot when I first arrived in Seattle was security guard, and
for some reason I was sent alone to watch the front gate during the burial of
Lee at the Lakeview Cemetery. There wasn’t any trouble keeping paparazzi out;
the only guy who showed up claimed he was from <i>People</i> magazine.</span></p>
<p class="bo-p" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The question of
course is why there was live ammunition on the set at all; we are told that a
munitions supplier named Seth Kenney was responsible for supplying the dummy
rounds to be used for the film. He admitted that he brought with him live
rounds from another job, but he denied leaving any of them mixed in with the dummy
rounds. Gutierrez-Reed was accused of being “sloppy” and disorganized, and
apparently didn’t check to see if she had any live rounds at that particular
moment; she claimed to have checked the rounds she had in her pocket, but took
two rounds from a box she didn’t check, assuming they were not “live” mainly
because she wasn’t supposed to have any at all. We are told that her conviction
makes her a convenient fall-person for Baldwin, although he probably shouldn’t
have pointed the gun at anyone, even as a “joke.”</span></p>
<p class="bo-p" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But that was
hardly the “big” news coming out of Hollywood for me. Last night at the Academy Awards
ceremony the winner for “best original screenplay” was French director Justine
Triet for the film <i>Anatomy of a Fall</i>,
which is about the trial of a woman accused of murdering her husband by first hitting him in
the head, then pushing him off a balcony. Now, I’ve let it be known that I
believe this film is about a lot more than that (I posted a “review” of the
film on the Amazon UK site). </span></p><p class="bo-p" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">It is my educated belief that Triet based her film on the
Depp-Heard case. I have been “informed” that Triet began writing her screenplay
for the film in 2020 well before the U.S. trial; but interestingly, my first post
on the Depp case was in February 2020, when I noted that <i>The Daily Mail</i> had obtained the now infamous audio recordings and had
released transcripts of the most damaging bits for Heard, those where she sounds
possessed by a demon while admitting to being physically abusive. Those audios immediately shifted public opinion in favor of Depp.<br /></span></p>
<p class="bo-p" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">I am fairly certain that Triet is lying if she claims she wasn't aware of this, and that her tortured, manipulative film isn’t an attempt
to discredit that audio evidence and to rewrite history, since even after the UK trial people were no longer
believing that Heard was the “victim” she claimed to be based on what they heard in those audios. Triet
certainly seemed to have convinced herself long before she said the following four
weeks into the Virginia trial when she was still filming:</span></p>
<p class="bo-p" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>It was very surprising to see this trial
take place in real life while we were filming</i>. <i>Obviously disturbing</i>.
<i>It was in the middle of filming the trial scenes for the film. The trial of
Amber Heard and Johnny Depp was broadcast live from the United States. When I
came home from filming in the evening, I watched almost live. I actually saw
parallels there.</i></span></p>
<p class="bo-p" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Triet went on to
claim she didn’t know anything about the Depp-Heard case previously:</span></p>
<p class="bo-p" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>I haven’t been told that much about it</i>.
<i>Reality is always much worse than fiction. In the trial, Amber Heard is
extremely mistreated. There is delusional misogyny in this trial. This taught
me one thing: the reality is much worse, at least in the United States. The
reality is totally beyond imagination. I could never have written something
like this</i>. <i>I can’t create this perversion</i>.</span></p>
<p class="bo-p" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Of course she is engaging in her own delusions there, and her
film is a perversion of reality. During the U.S. trial, a mountain of evidence
was presented to prove that Heard was lying and the real abuser in the case, and
her own claims of abuse I discussed (again) a couple posts ago. For someone to
claim that this was all “delusional misogyny” only exposes that person's own delusions,
as we might conjecture from this:</span></p><p class="bo-p" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="bo-p" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0gq9OP1rqYqyD64SfpXIIinLDU5QDi4Rtonb6FITZTNqAYUByBiwmaQd2YxLZYODSNa5HDs21dgN-NgckrR6CX1wkBqgcydtPbNQHilWMwZj-xRvlCCnQI5eIQxjOhE6WU8TKth9A7BhRXzEyNwA9FhWe6lI-L8kamuZUdmKVN71DvdDQgUAkZgCSldLb/s794/Screenshot%202024-03-10%20210848.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="794" data-original-width="465" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0gq9OP1rqYqyD64SfpXIIinLDU5QDi4Rtonb6FITZTNqAYUByBiwmaQd2YxLZYODSNa5HDs21dgN-NgckrR6CX1wkBqgcydtPbNQHilWMwZj-xRvlCCnQI5eIQxjOhE6WU8TKth9A7BhRXzEyNwA9FhWe6lI-L8kamuZUdmKVN71DvdDQgUAkZgCSldLb/s320/Screenshot%202024-03-10%20210848.png" width="187" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Well, "adjudged" by Heard shills anyways. If you
think about it, it isn’t hard to suspect that Triet is trying to rewrite history,
and the most obvious evidence of that is the inclusion of audio evidence in the fictional
trial, which is a "discussion" between the accused and her deceased husband. </span></span><span style="font-size: large;">She didn't invent the audio angle in her film all by herself, given that it first came out when she allegedly began writing her screenplay. I think it
is clear by the weight given the audio in the film--it lasts a whole 10
minutes of screen time (yeah, I watched the film), that Triet's
motivation for making this film was to discredit that audio, pure and simple.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">In the film, </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span>we are presented with a “visual” scene of what occurs from the recording
device that the husband was supposedly using for the purposes of
material for a book he hoped to write. They are discussing why she spends so
much time away when they have a blind son at home, and the husband seems to be the one who
has to take care of everything. She claims it is his problem and he needs to “solve”
it himself. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Her verbiage then takes on the aspect of cruelty, and once the encounter
turns “violent” the camera pans over the faces of spectators in the courtroom
as we are now listening to the audio recording as they are; they have just
heard the wife (played by German actress Sandra Huller) berate her French husband
in ugly terms; when he accuses her of being violent, that is what we hear next.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But Triet
clearly has an ulterior motive here, and that is convince people that what was
heard on the Depp-Heard audios that turned the tide of public opinion in Depp’s
favor and against Heard was not the “truth.” She wanted to create a film that
presents an alternative narrative that refuses to accept the one that might be (and was) adjudicated by
a jury based on the evidence presented in a real trial, that for people who
supported Heard and believed that Triet’s fictional film was “the truth,” they (and she) apparently preferred fiction to the truth. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Triet’s film
takes the usual liberties in manipulating viewers with a contrived and tortured
set of circumstances to heighten a sense of a woman being the “real victim,”
which of course denies the <span> </span>reality in
the Depp case <span> </span>that it was a man who had
rejected a life of being abused by a woman whose cruelty could never be
satisfied or resolved—and having decided to step out of that relationship, he
must be destroyed—or “canceled”—in a manner that only required that one “believe
all women” and reject the due process rights of the falsely accused. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The fact that a
real jury rejected this narrative is what a gender activist filmmaker like Triet
cannot bear, and thus she attempted to “correct” the “injustice” caused by the public turn against Heard's "narrative" by making a film of
unbelievable (and disreputable) contrivances and manipulations to satisfy her
fevered mind against the truth, and in turn that of the viewer whose lack
knowledge of the real trial would make them easy prey for her false narrative. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Of
course I am taking “liberties” based on what I believe, but there should be no
doubt that at the very least Triet obviously didn’t come-up with the audio
angle for her film all by herself, and knew the impact of the Depp-Heard audios
as early as even before she allegedly began writing her screenplay for the
film. That she felt the need to make a film that discredited this real evidence
and restore the “credibility” of the “believe all women” mantra should not be
doubted, even if she hypocritically denies it. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The fact that
that term “monster” which she uses in her film is obviously culled from the UK
trial and the text messages, and the Huller character isn’t a “perfect victim”
as many people tried to style Heard is part of the new "narrative" she concocts;<span> </span>yes,
there were indications that the fictional character physically abused the deceased. But you can't believe your ears, it wasn’t
the “truth.” Yes, she hit her husband once, she admitted, but everything else
was a contrivance, a fraud perpetrated by the husband who was “hitting”
himself. The absurdity of this contrivance is nauseating, but it certainly
worked for those who were most gullible for misinformation, and for film critics
who lap-up propaganda films like this.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Anyone who
followed the Depp-Heard case can’t be but appalled by the disingenuousness Triet
is trying to perpetrate on intelligent, thinking people here, contemptuous of
both them and the truth. That Triet is perpetrating a fraud on viewers with her
own self-victimized propaganda discredits not just herself, her film, film critics
who “bought” her self-serving deceptions, and of course the Academy Awards self-congratulating voters—but most importantly, the truth
itself.</span></p>
Mark W. Kittellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767307312025397299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201311015829526785.post-18733290617390112362024-02-27T16:10:00.000-08:002024-02-27T20:40:33.408-08:00BROKEN<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> </i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Broken</i>, according to the <i>Merriam-Webster Dictionary</i>, could mean “<span class="dttext">violently separated into parts,” or “damaged or altered by or as
if by breaking,” or “having undergone or been subjected to fracture, or “not
working properly,” or “being irregular, interrupted, or full of obstacles,” or
“violated by transgression</span><b>: </b><span class="dttext">not kept
or honored,” or “disrupted by change,” or “bankrupt.” This certainly can be deduced from a balkanized Republican Party rendered incompetent by factions who claim to represent the will of (some) "people," but in fact chaos and ethical and moral corruption are their principle "accomplishment." <br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="dttext">This country certainly is "broken" both in the political and social sense. Everyone
has their interpretation of who is most at fault; I would say that
politically, it is the party that is least willing to “compromise” their non-existent “principles” with the will of the majority of the country, that being of course the far-right, while in the social sphere certain groups that style themselves as "left" are no less dangerous than "culture warriors" on the right, unwilling to “compromise" its "principles" to the strictures and judgments imposed upon them by such things as "facts" and "due process."<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">It is certainly arguable that Democrats' willingness to compromise (too much so in the opinion of some) makes it a party of governing. When Republicans are in power, they either reward their corporate benefactors with tax breaks and deregulation, and take a sledgehammer to anything that helps working people in the name of "budget restraint." The reality, of course, is that the far-right has no interest in governing; they are just hoping to make people believe the "other side" is worse than they are so that they can convince other sociopaths to vote for them. <br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">One thing that does seem to have "broken" with "reason" and not complete stupidity is that the biggest foreign enemies to MAGA Republicans are our allies, while actively supporting dictators who think elections don't count if they don't win (like Trump). Not that this is anything "new" of course; the U.S. has been doing that for a century in Central America. But what is "new" is the absolute brazenness and unthinking behind it, fueled by absurd conspiracies. Republican George Bush counted on allied support following 9-11; today, to the allies the U.S. looks more like Russian stooge and dictator Orban's Hungary, controlled by far-right nationalists. It also appears that French President Macron is taking over the leadership role (such is what happens when one feels "disrespected" by Putin), even to send in French troops into Ukraine in an "advisory" role.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Your history books tell you about how Republicans promoted the "red scare" and viewed Russia as the principle enemy for what it did <i>inside</i> this country. Republicans rarely supported wars to fight the "red menace" overseas, or for that matter even against the Nazis. Today we see a spineless Mike Johnson gifting the murderous dictator Putin (yes, now how many of his opponents have died under "mysterious" circumstances?) by withholding aid to Ukraine due to House hypocrisy on border legislation (which they really <i>don't</i> want in an election year), Republicans, it
seems, were less <i>against</i> dictatorships than they were against “socialism” as a concept for public welfare and an attempt to “equalize” society, which of course
they opposed in this country, and still do. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Rather than do that, the Republican
Party chooses to stand for nothing, merely wielding its power to smash things just because if you are not their "friend," you are their "enemy," like a playground bully will smash your toys just because they don't like you. In red states, elections are something that must be tolerated once every two years, but otherwise are just a minor inconvenience for Republican's authoritarian impulses, since the people who vote for them (almost all white) seem to think everyone else doesn't "count." I mean look at Texas; non-Hispanic whites are in the minority, yet from the "outside" you would think no one exists (let alone has rights) but them.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">So the mindless far-right authoritarians are determined to undermine democracy in this county because they do not disguise the fact that they are the pawns of our external enemies, and only wish to be contrary against the needs of the people they claim to "represent." In its place it seeks to establish one-party rule, and to do so it will shatter every principle
this country ever stood for since its founding.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But the onset of authoritarian rule isn't the only thing a broken system has created. The Alabama
State Supreme Court has ruled that embryos in-vitro are “human beings” and if "killed" the parties involved can be sued for or charged with "murder." It is reported that doctors and the "owners" of the in the state are confused by
this ruling, since the “owners” of the embryos no longer have control over
their “property.” Anyone who thinks that conservative courts are biased toward men should think again; this ruling leaves men who have even a casual encounter with a "date" can be responsible for "child support" at conception--a backdoor way by anti-abortion conservatives to give women more time to "think" if they want a child or not while they "collect" even if they have a job.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">This is what happens when you have a far-right US Supreme
Court which decides that it doesn’t have to listen to what the majority of the
country believes is settled law and their rights. Those 53 percent of white
women who voted for Trump in 2016 and not "one of their own" only have themselves to blame, since he added
three extremist judges to the bench who made this possible. I’m not sure they learned any lessons, because the same percentage of white women voted for Trump in 2020, although there was a significant enough decrease in support from white men. One suspects little will change this year.<br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">We live in a
country with people who have broken heads, who can’t think straight because
their minds are filled with hate and paranoia. Marjorie Taylor Greene is off with her anecdotal evidence of the "crime wave" set off by migrants waiving around the only useful piece of "evidence" she found, which of course necessitates a white female victim. Of course picking one example out of thousands of people murdered by US citizens is hypocritical and cynical, but apparently this plays on the fact that most Americans have become indifferent to crime--unless of course it is committed by someone who isn't "one of us," and that makes it "more" bad.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">I mean let's face it: Republicans have picked migrants at the border to run against and are aiming all their cannons in that direction. The media of course provides cannon fodder with imagery portraying asylum-seekers as vermin, not as human beings fleeing US-aided violence in their home countries, people
who just want a safe place to make a living, and who every economist says will
add to economic growth in this country. But no one listens to anything "good" one might say about these people; they just look too "foreign" and ugly, they don't them in their neighborhoods. Besides, they don't have this waiting for asylum seekers at any location that isn't facing the pathway from Europe:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhZShbvGIAX8zaif2fBvtB6oOq4hE8QYXPtb-nFAWazc_CRIcVWZ5h7KjWxO6X73wLNc-O9dUtqBRl-AEObL68rSRhlk8QfBL5aWEr8Gm3bkj01_MR3lPd5NLtWRw3hyphenhyphenGxd12VY5AXcMqEZxqvizJprvq-6Hol7_JgbOQpVSFPGem2-LSue1ePoknSEOK2/s500/Bronze-plaque-of-New-Colossus.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="376" data-original-width="500" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhZShbvGIAX8zaif2fBvtB6oOq4hE8QYXPtb-nFAWazc_CRIcVWZ5h7KjWxO6X73wLNc-O9dUtqBRl-AEObL68rSRhlk8QfBL5aWEr8Gm3bkj01_MR3lPd5NLtWRw3hyphenhyphenGxd12VY5AXcMqEZxqvizJprvq-6Hol7_JgbOQpVSFPGem2-LSue1ePoknSEOK2/s320/Bronze-plaque-of-New-Colossus.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">If you want evidence of the dehumanizing of a whole group of people in this country, you don't have to look any further than Los Angeles and the surrounding
county. Both are 50 percent Hispanic, yet in films set in the city, filmmakers seem to
go out of their way to make sure you don’t see any of them anywhere. Hector Becerra
in an <i>LA Times</i> story notes that
Latinos have a hard time even getting “clichéd supporting roles” that
are
common for black actors—“the wise or wisecracking guides for white
protagonists.” </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Actor and musician Rubén Blades said “The industry thinks
we’re
foreign. We’re culturally excluded.” He went on to say that “It’s not
something
that just happened. They don’t usually hire a white or black actor to
play the
stereotype. They use Latino actors to play the stereotype. This
reinforces in
the minds of the bigoted their bigotry.” Yeah, but you won’t see anyone
on CNN be allowed to tell you that; it would suggest they are “human”
and not
that “vermin” crowding at the border that the network doesn't attempt to
differentiate itself from Fox News and neo-Nazis like Laura Ingraham. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>The</span><i> </i><span>self-destruction of a broken America is not surprising given that many have not learned any lessons from history (you know, "CRT" stuff). This country is on the brink of ruin, perhaps not of the physical variety that beset Germany after WWII, but of a psychological and<i> </i>institutional kind.</span><i> </i>Recently in<i> Scientific American</i>—hardly
a left-wing publication—Bandy Lee, a forensic psychiatrist and president of
the World Mental Health Coalition, described the psychosis linking Trump and
his supporters to this destructive purpose:</span></p>
<p class="articleblock-kziy9" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>The reasons are multiple and varied, but in
my recent public-service book, </i><i><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Profile of a Nation</span></i><i>, I have outlined two major emotional drives: narcissistic symbiosis
and shared psychosis. Narcissistic symbiosis refers to the developmental wounds
that make the leader-follower relationship magnetically attractive. The leader,
hungry for adulation to compensate for an inner lack of self-worth, projects
grandiose omnipotence—while the followers, rendered needy by societal stress or
developmental injury, yearn for a parental figure. When such wounded
individuals are given positions of power, they arouse similar pathology in the
population that creates a “lock and key” relationship.</i></span></p>
<p class="articleblock-kziy9" data-block="sciam/paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>"Shared Psychosis--which
is also called “</i><i><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">folie à millions</span></i><i>”
[“madness for millions”] when occurring at the national level or “induced
delusions”—refers to the infectiousness of severe symptoms that goes beyond
ordinary group psychology. When a highly symptomatic individual is placed in an
influential position, the person’s symptoms can spread through the population
through emotional bonds, heightening existing pathologies and inducing
delusions, paranoia and propensity for violence—even in previously healthy
individuals. The treatment is removal of exposure.</i></span></p>
<p class="articleblock-kziy9" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Trump’s
2020 election defeat left him a “broken” man psychologically:</span></p>
<p class="articleblock-kziy9" data-block="sciam/paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Destructiveness
is a core characteristic of mental pathology, whether directed toward the self
or others. First, I wish to clarify that those with mental illness are, as a
group, no more dangerous than those without mental illness. When mental
pathology is accompanied by criminal-mindedness, however, the combination can
make individuals far more dangerous than either alone… the symbolic nature of
violence and how it is a life impulse gone awry. Briefly, if one cannot have
love, one resorts to respect. And when respect is unavailable, one resorts to fear.
Trump is now living through an intolerable loss of respect: rejection by a
nation in his election defeat. Violence helps compensate for feelings of
powerlessness, inadequacy and lack of real productivity.</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Salon</i> noted in December that Trump also
suffers under a delusional “God” complex, claiming he is “The Chosen One,” although more likely the one portrayed in the 1977 Kirk
Douglas horror film that predicted Armageddon unless “the chosen” was stopped (“funny”
how <i>today</i> we seem determined on mindless self-destruction). Trump, his
carefully-crafted “celebrity” image of himself smashed to bits by the exposure
of his true self, now boasts of having “divine” power and “secret knowledge”
he can’t exactly tell you at the moment because anything less leaves him
exposed as broken man grasping for any lifeline to keep him drowning in his own
criminal folly. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Trump, humiliated by his loss in 2020, seeks reelection for one
and only one reason: revenge upon the country that in the most public fashion “humiliated”
him in 2020. While he puts migrants on the border to the forefront to conceal
his aims, he hasn’t exactly made it a “secret” that he intends on continuing his
efforts to annihilate public healthcare as one of his first orders of business
as a one-day “dictator.” But as rulings from his past judicial picks indicate, the effects
of his previous dictatorial rule will live on even if he isn’t reelected this
year.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But the brokenness of this country is not simply of the political kind led by sociopaths who have harnessed the psychosis of a vocal and committed minority of sociopaths, but of the social variety as well. </span><span style="font-size: large;">T</span><span style="font-size: large;">he other day
outside the OHM “dance” club (people don’t actually go there to “dance” to
hip-hop music), there was a drive-by shooting in which one person was killed
and two injured. I was waiting at a bus stop where some older white woman and
a black security guard were talking about it as if they were completely clueless
about “why” and “who” does these things in Seattle; hypocrisy abounds. News
reporting, film and television never talks about the fact that in this country,
over 50 percent of homicides and violent crime in general is perpetrated by black
individuals, about three times the rate of their percent of the population—and probably
would be higher if it wasn’t for all those mass-shootings by white people.
Instead of being forced to account for their “own house,” there is the judgmental blame
game (now its blaming migrants in Chicago and
New York) or media presentations of “See, we are normal people just like you, White
America. It's those "illegals" who are doing all those "bad" things.<br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Hypocrisy and
conceit, of course, goes well beyond race:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs5DUHDwybfqiDCvRMvwqEeLFqKbyu4hZdQH6AVZdeI9NmUBT7PdBLFlGqGaeLgs_t6XyHl0n8w8HwexB6oTnzRcRwQXxksQfsVCsPut1WqOoYiDlhMufLFB73_6_tFbeWAVemVJXhBCalwtY1aTzHbDi20_4iLgG70O_ofM9RyiOxpgYd-L5WxKyqPrdq/s4160/IMG_20240130_201311103.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4160" data-original-width="3120" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs5DUHDwybfqiDCvRMvwqEeLFqKbyu4hZdQH6AVZdeI9NmUBT7PdBLFlGqGaeLgs_t6XyHl0n8w8HwexB6oTnzRcRwQXxksQfsVCsPut1WqOoYiDlhMufLFB73_6_tFbeWAVemVJXhBCalwtY1aTzHbDi20_4iLgG70O_ofM9RyiOxpgYd-L5WxKyqPrdq/s320/IMG_20240130_201311103.jpg" width="240" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Isn't it funny how such "successful" people actually weaponize some of those "traits" of alleged "unsuccessful" people to make them so? Of course it is
always useful when a self-loathing Supreme Court justice hires a white female
clerk…</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT0p-tcT22hWRkrPB9GfrzKeS66bLWH1RlGsEfXlt6_mU0PdGjpfJwhTaX8s-2j9sPrOquqHuo5H3wUHu0KpiLU9M202CHQOkMCMVrmOAiyyZhf_59cOHrXVwNa8d-XFK-g7eczC50aEI-KpzToxAghyphenhyphen2GLh7ZPZ1k1rUyOg4n2Fgz9BDcMTsHyA79LxB3/s774/7952f2d0-ccfc.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="774" data-original-width="571" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT0p-tcT22hWRkrPB9GfrzKeS66bLWH1RlGsEfXlt6_mU0PdGjpfJwhTaX8s-2j9sPrOquqHuo5H3wUHu0KpiLU9M202CHQOkMCMVrmOAiyyZhf_59cOHrXVwNa8d-XFK-g7eczC50aEI-KpzToxAghyphenhyphen2GLh7ZPZ1k1rUyOg4n2Fgz9BDcMTsHyA79LxB3/s320/7952f2d0-ccfc.jpg" width="236" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">…who forgot she
once texted a colleague that "I HATE BLACK PEOPLE ... I hate blacks. End
of story." But that’s OK, because somewhere deep inside the “soul” of
Clarence Thomas, there is a white neo-Nazi hiding out. But we shouldn’t feel too sorry for Crystal Clayton, since this was first reported in 2017, and it didn’t
hurt her career prospects as she continued to find jobs with conservative organizations
and judges (some of whom we may conjecture "secretly" shared her views). </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">We are told by
cultural theologists that women have been “powerless” in the past, and many
suggest that is still true. But the truth is that what we see now is women
flexing their “muscle” with the “power” that the courts and mainstream media
has given them, and in many cases abusing that power, like a cannon
expectorating grapeshot indifferent to friend<span>
</span>and foe, which is why most of the their victims are “liberal” men who
feel they have no “choice,” guilty or innocent, to “submit” as comic and former
senator Al Franken felt compelled to do over a high school-level prank that a
photo was taken of decades ago.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-size: large;"> In California, they passed a law based on the false claims of Evan Rachel Wood to make it more difficult for an accused to defend themselves against said lies.<br /></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="dttext">And is the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard story finally settled yet? Of course not. While Depp has been getting good press of late,
Heard is hiding out jobless in Spain. I mean, that's no good, even if Heard is living high on the hog off someone's else's money while her "friends" do her dirty work. Isn’t anyone interested in where
she is getting her money from these days? She hasn’t had a paying acting gig in
years. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">We know that Heard is bi-sexual;
while there is evidence that she was abusive in all of her personal relationships
(including with a Mexican soap opera star, Valentino Lunus, who said Heard
eventually became abusive not just to him but to his mother), with men her “relationships” appear to be parasitic, and once she drained the
blood from her victims she discarded them. According to the Musk biography, this
high school dropout came on to him pretending to be fascinated by his space
endeavors and that led to a relationship. But after she got him to pay some of
her “donations” in her name and convince him to contribute sperm for in-vitro
fertilization she suddenly became a raging nutcase, with Heard, wanting the "blame" put on Musk for things going "wrong," locking
herself in a room and claiming that Musk wanted to attack her, when she was told
that no one was going to touch her, but to just get the hell out of their lives.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="dttext">But the mainstream media isn't interested in supplying information that makes them look more foolish, as the news that the informant that Republicans relied so heavily on to its case against Hunter Biden and his father was recently arrested for falsifying the "key" evidence has done. So instead of that, a news site under Disney’s umbrella, <i>Vice</i>,
which periodically produces “documentaries” in its series called “The Nine Lives Of
(fill in the blank of some celebrity)” that details “</span>The rise, fall, and
rise again of our favorite cultural icons”—has taken upon itself to bring the Depp/Heard case out of mothballs one more time with new conspiracy theories about social media and alleged hidden "evidence," which of course isn't supposed to include that tape of that pool scene where Heard's sister is being asked where she got all those bruises from.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Now, do we really have to go over the "evidence" that Heard and her incompetent attorney thought was most "damaging" again? Forget you ever heard those audios; the jury along with most of the rest us saw something odd about that “bruise” on Heard’s arm that allegedly occurred in the same “incident”
where her face was cut so badly that blood sprayed across a wall (or was it
the refrigerator?). Like the rest of us, the jury saw no damage at all to Heard’s face, which suggest
that the “bruise” was of a “random” variety that Heard took at a random time to add to her “collection” that might be “useful” later. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Of course, Heard showed us these horrible injuries on her face (OK, it's not her, but you get the "picture")...</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBM_UrYPo_aYQe70eNX2QEI40NsKdTUG8zzrpoX0pTBqnPPlIaQ-xLNRUyBFYSzt5kvz7AwGEQcjcbJcL6ETS7NVfOlnQ67-6hTt70SuKQWS9RDuaFM0dMtdgHMjWI2Yw7r9ZnPUtBtNvHAAkKskNUbw5vMu5D0SlkIL2DGvVWhmyqcU7WeYHS4gwnFGzT/s711/Screenshot%202024-02-26%20140926.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="711" data-original-width="503" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBM_UrYPo_aYQe70eNX2QEI40NsKdTUG8zzrpoX0pTBqnPPlIaQ-xLNRUyBFYSzt5kvz7AwGEQcjcbJcL6ETS7NVfOlnQ67-6hTt70SuKQWS9RDuaFM0dMtdgHMjWI2Yw7r9ZnPUtBtNvHAAkKskNUbw5vMu5D0SlkIL2DGvVWhmyqcU7WeYHS4gwnFGzT/s320/Screenshot%202024-02-26%20140926.png" width="226" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /> While JD was doing this:</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj69txR-9bCTeC3ajpjhqEwPpDYGzYseWmM1M0FkQr6tkD5jMva9d3qLhGObOkxqWT1Wcu8XBMHhoBwPUPg-QPVQ2ZHrxA9SnoiIkKxfNr7_qLAZtqZyt1DOK3EXFd9cFNGGjqCT_EUf15LlrRCaVsewapZ33sCEVFLbPUdypcfLcVsVHy-Fbr544wQv_mw/s615/1_Depp-v-Heard-defamation-lawsuit-at-County-Circuit-Court-in-Fairfax.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="453" data-original-width="615" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj69txR-9bCTeC3ajpjhqEwPpDYGzYseWmM1M0FkQr6tkD5jMva9d3qLhGObOkxqWT1Wcu8XBMHhoBwPUPg-QPVQ2ZHrxA9SnoiIkKxfNr7_qLAZtqZyt1DOK3EXFd9cFNGGjqCT_EUf15LlrRCaVsewapZ33sCEVFLbPUdypcfLcVsVHy-Fbr544wQv_mw/s320/1_Depp-v-Heard-defamation-lawsuit-at-County-Circuit-Court-in-Fairfax.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">And of course there was that “bruise” on
her cheek at the TRO hearing; if one looks close, one can see a “zit” postule
which typically is surrounded by skin redness, and we would see this same “bruise”
six years later in an image taken in Spain:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVx8pdt5iH4YGNYWD4Wj5TngLRMaEo2cVOVJoPPaCJA59A1ebAvbblQPcgn9ap4Bakx0-7ROwy7fYxe0HkR4PkTDBcQxkavB-8R-WYPlEbRyybEcG4799_JOeDq3Eq7MJiDxjRgshe-AtWbyztoGtdIfzywRxn6lANVQjpoM-s7OJ1dwdXghhWuB-oPNvY/s390/xnau8opnsgs91.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="390" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVx8pdt5iH4YGNYWD4Wj5TngLRMaEo2cVOVJoPPaCJA59A1ebAvbblQPcgn9ap4Bakx0-7ROwy7fYxe0HkR4PkTDBcQxkavB-8R-WYPlEbRyybEcG4799_JOeDq3Eq7MJiDxjRgshe-AtWbyztoGtdIfzywRxn6lANVQjpoM-s7OJ1dwdXghhWuB-oPNvY/s320/xnau8opnsgs91.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">So here we go
again. Do these people think we are that stupid? While JD is being himself, making himself accessible to fans and
participating in charity events, AH is being her usual arrogant, selfish,
narcissistic self living off Musk’s “child support” we presume, since he
“donated” the sperm for her surrogate-birthed child, so she has even less
motivation to “meet and greet” her “fans” who themselves use Heard as a
“prop” for their own “issues.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Why do we find
ourselves at this point where facts and evidence are as irrelevant in some
circles as due process and innocent until proven guilty? At the Sexual Violence
Law Center in the building I currently work, their interest in the “facts” is
probably best summed-up by this attitude:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHdOqvkK3XMfEYyXRk0w_4b7eEzgHzwKSLQ8KHI9CKu8cGiarrY27xLcq6GzEhZaymQSa86-5ffgWYFlTJaar-_NW0_HpX0X4_-08do1iqFlYtYtAUBXekUMKEqpc01AyxApDGaGkxOkJ0UwT2sgMlhJEJWDD1xq3ixrfuT1wwVHZMcx4neQkboocBUdSS/s320/IMG_20231114_214501615.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="320" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHdOqvkK3XMfEYyXRk0w_4b7eEzgHzwKSLQ8KHI9CKu8cGiarrY27xLcq6GzEhZaymQSa86-5ffgWYFlTJaar-_NW0_HpX0X4_-08do1iqFlYtYtAUBXekUMKEqpc01AyxApDGaGkxOkJ0UwT2sgMlhJEJWDD1xq3ixrfuT1wwVHZMcx4neQkboocBUdSS/s1600/IMG_20231114_214501615.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The "believe all woman" mantra is always used in the absence of evidence of physical violence, and is the primary "evidence" to determine whether an encounter was "consensual" or not. These people are not so much interested in the truth, but see this as a political bludgeon to use against men. Some people around here remember former Bellevue police officer Mike Hetle, who was recently convicted in the first degree murder of a black neighbor and after a failed appeal will serve the rest of his life in prison. In 2001 he shot an unarmed Hispanic man named Nelson Martinez-Mendez after a domestic violence call. Hetle blocked his car as he was leaving, and interpreting Hetle's yelling as a demand to see his driver's license, this movement was "interpreted" by Hetle in another way. <br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But wait, was it "domestic violence"? No. What we learned at the inquest was that Martinez-Mendez's sister--unhappy that he was leaving for California and she would have to pay the rent on the apartment (they at that time shared) by herself--could think of nothing else to stop him but to call 911 and claim that he had threatened her with knife. She admitted it was a lie, but she had to tell the police something "bad" enough to stop him, not stopping to think that he might be put in jail over a false claim and not have a job to pay the rent after all. Or, for that matter, killed. So yes, I am "cynical" about these things.<br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">We shouldn't be surprised to know that the use of
the term “violence”—rather than, say, “violated”—is because it is more easily
weaponized, especially against high profile accused. Furthermore, we find that
the alleged “victims” are usually for “activist” legal firms or organizations
are being used to advance an activist agenda, meaning facts and evidence, guilt
or innocence are irrelevant; only how the alleged “victim” can used to advance
an agenda is what is what is relevant. One may question the psychology involved
in advancing cases meant to destroy an accused’ life if it means ignoring
contradictory evidence or clearly false claims. But that is where we are at now
in society. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Some British
media service is launching its own attack on social media; ThatUmbrellaGuy
noted that he had received questions that he was invited to answer, which were
all loaded and not interested in the facts of the Depp case, just how much money he
made from trolling Heard and “scamming” his audience with "false" information
about the case. None of the questions, of course, wanted to know his view of
either the facts of the case, and the mainstream media coverage of the case
which was entirely biased in favor of Heard and its “shock” that Depp actually
won his case before a jury that made its decision based on the evidence
presented, not influenced at all by MSM propaganda. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Those who claim that the “influence” of social media and its
dastardly plan to reveal to the people what the mainstream media was not doing--revealing the facts to them--is "hypnotizing" the masses to change the course of justice has been proven to be false in the Marylin Manson case, since it depends on state laws and the bias of a judge.<br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Manson defamation case against Evan Rachel Wood and Illma Gore—or what’s
left<span> </span>of it—received another blow recently from
the clearly biased judge in the case, Teresa Beaudet…</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzWaekfqHNhTuudGYlKYansTRXsV_BlnO-pXLGLswsOcy0lU9Fo9G-OXoxM4UvIbTTth8HPJTaFuXhv5BBRqpNaKEC19fuPt6w85XFhYmWYvJrv9Q7jKyUCauQnM7v_-cXIswmqKpPvlrZm1Lz4XKysjcrwQKLLHfRkVYv-FfMM7z5LnS5BsbkqA4gjPi7/s836/Screenshot%202024-02-21%20144724.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="836" data-original-width="685" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzWaekfqHNhTuudGYlKYansTRXsV_BlnO-pXLGLswsOcy0lU9Fo9G-OXoxM4UvIbTTth8HPJTaFuXhv5BBRqpNaKEC19fuPt6w85XFhYmWYvJrv9Q7jKyUCauQnM7v_-cXIswmqKpPvlrZm1Lz4XKysjcrwQKLLHfRkVYv-FfMM7z5LnS5BsbkqA4gjPi7/s320/Screenshot%202024-02-21%20144724.png" width="262" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">…who ruled last
week that Manson had to pay nearly $500,000 in the pairs’ legal fees. On the
<i>Advocate Magazine</i> website, they managed to come up with these words of “wisdom” from the judge: “Conflicts resolve more readily when human beings can observe each other’s
facial expressions and hear the tone of voice of the person opposite them.” </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Yeah,
who needs “facts” and “evidence” when <i>her</i> “feelings” are sufficient to make a
“judgment” in a case. We find that this learned judge who started out as a corporate law attorney but now among other things judges family law (bias alert) who issued forth this completely incomprehensible justification allowing the forging of an FBI letter to be redefined as being "OK" to make false claims to destroy someone’s life since it is
“protected speech” and thus is not illegal:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> <br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiMy4emaTAWIf-n61nlmdrjMeE8h13XDfYwtWqhpDlFzXG-yiY3UIJTUXE-3-KjgG1nhMc1yQvLX1EAD14sBqei8LU736r_Oiz0kbYLhzre3HW99y-QjpxFbuxV07JLWiE6B8TnGTUeiko9o5emjSFSvcmiNHVcugE19powXWQ0skc_oxNbckT05oBTLT1/s1119/Screenshot%202024-02-21%20144918.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="898" data-original-width="1119" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiMy4emaTAWIf-n61nlmdrjMeE8h13XDfYwtWqhpDlFzXG-yiY3UIJTUXE-3-KjgG1nhMc1yQvLX1EAD14sBqei8LU736r_Oiz0kbYLhzre3HW99y-QjpxFbuxV07JLWiE6B8TnGTUeiko9o5emjSFSvcmiNHVcugE19powXWQ0skc_oxNbckT05oBTLT1/s320/Screenshot%202024-02-21%20144918.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Yes, if you are a man accused by a woman in California, you may well think our justice system is "broken." Now, I’ve
already mentioned an article in the now-defunct feminist journal <i>Jezebel</i> about
how Wood broke-up with the father of her son, Jamie Bell, because he wasn’t
into “very edgy” activities like she was, and more recently she was forced to
give-up custody of said son for kidnapping and making false claims. Wood’s
mental health issues and faulty memory that seem to be the basis of accusations
against Manson were no doubt assisted by this individual…</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjPslXyoDOq_W1kH5nEtFCemgunvm6i-kf8CgqfbSoi79oa8XoRW4SIvVgdg_bCWRSEJAbgqzTf8dqlWfeCZWhIFvguEECAO1p83sr47de0q5vw3FminZrCEa7RCwc7Qxt3_viMFSF4oT3Go-sxpr4xyzejxPG8b6Ujw4Gn5vIH2C5Nljsrb3YY1DBvssX/s653/Screenshot%202024-02-21%20142432.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="653" data-original-width="614" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjPslXyoDOq_W1kH5nEtFCemgunvm6i-kf8CgqfbSoi79oa8XoRW4SIvVgdg_bCWRSEJAbgqzTf8dqlWfeCZWhIFvguEECAO1p83sr47de0q5vw3FminZrCEa7RCwc7Qxt3_viMFSF4oT3Go-sxpr4xyzejxPG8b6Ujw4Gn5vIH2C5Nljsrb3YY1DBvssX/s320/Screenshot%202024-02-21%20142432.png" width="301" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">…who <i>The Daily Mail</i> also wondered about the
sanity of:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSxHOxXT_71g_H3zz0eD2exQg3bTsgxpEYPcGIZwI7GUZRuz8Cc_rYq2xN7T3iiIk2H_rACfD7tx4DNSnPELosOLOoiRLCrcfltsdPkxXpi6Qj1DE8j7Sef2mkk7R1GFqYZgerMwVoo47NeUp05toK1LawH6gxDZLiujK5lfJf398lFo_CFaLn_ZWdXvO4/s981/Screenshot%202024-02-21%20142232.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="394" data-original-width="981" height="129" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSxHOxXT_71g_H3zz0eD2exQg3bTsgxpEYPcGIZwI7GUZRuz8Cc_rYq2xN7T3iiIk2H_rACfD7tx4DNSnPELosOLOoiRLCrcfltsdPkxXpi6Qj1DE8j7Sef2mkk7R1GFqYZgerMwVoo47NeUp05toK1LawH6gxDZLiujK5lfJf398lFo_CFaLn_ZWdXvO4/s320/Screenshot%202024-02-21%20142232.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">This is the kind
of person we are not to suspect has some kind of ulterior political motive to conspire
with another individual (Wood) to contrive a hoax to expunge, “explain” and
protect themselves from their own past inane activities. This conspiracy included a "questionnaire" in which former Manson associates were asked to checkoff anything "odd" that they experienced with Manson, and by their definitions they used this to bolster Wood's accusations so that she wouldn't seem like the "only one" who needed to explain why she was "forced" into being "very edgy." The results of the various supporting accusations by these people can be deduced here:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi34ejn6Y2VXBjFfwRelNnNnjwhK0c8v_BEfZhfgNu6JvZaWerdxQZRbOrKQ5ETl7mKAjSBWk5vwWO9jhcxP79ebFbqyaiBmg6vFqCvUtuPhvqEtAKtSQEzdyqsx6BP5JXJX-VrVrKAEGMKu58NOPEnuPE0HCcS7pm-zkIQTjtiDB4P0JgFneYRPb1GotpV/s892/Screenshot%202024-02-21%20154130.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="769" data-original-width="892" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi34ejn6Y2VXBjFfwRelNnNnjwhK0c8v_BEfZhfgNu6JvZaWerdxQZRbOrKQ5ETl7mKAjSBWk5vwWO9jhcxP79ebFbqyaiBmg6vFqCvUtuPhvqEtAKtSQEzdyqsx6BP5JXJX-VrVrKAEGMKu58NOPEnuPE0HCcS7pm-zkIQTjtiDB4P0JgFneYRPb1GotpV/s320/Screenshot%202024-02-21%20154130.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Note that like Judge Aileen Cannon in the Trump classified documents case Florida, the judge in the Manson case seems intent on finding ways to "save" the defendant despite the fact the claims of her fellow accusers have crumbled when the slightest demand for evidence was "requested." That Manson was forced to pay nearly $500,000 in Wood and Gore's legal expenses suggests that the judge believed it "unfair" that the pair be forced to pay attorneys to waste their time on a fool's errand in search of nonexistent "evidence." </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Of course in California it isn't a "crime" to kidnap a child and defend it with insanely false claims if you are a woman, but given media disinterest in reporting anything that deviates from the "believe all women" narrative, Wood has been allowed to put a selfless spin on the fact she was forced to give up custody of her son to Bell.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Anyways, here in Seattle I am watching a woman on the lawn next to the Seattle Central College, which used to be a "community college" but is now "accredited" to provide Bachelor's Degrees, which it brags that with such a degree you can get a job that pays as well as a janitor in Seattle. She was wielding what appeared to be a plastic baseball bat that
little kids play with, hitting something hard attached to some lump laying on
the ground. I realized it was a person on the ground only after his/her legs moved.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">To be honest, I thought
this was just some homeless woman with mental health issues taking out her frustrations on some guy
who was trying to ignore her; Seattle is full of such people, and people walking past mostly ignored the goings on probably thought the same thing. I mean, we give certain groups the "right" to take out their frustrations on other groups in this manner, right?<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But then suddenly a group of women suddenly appeared and they started
clapping:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dx-ULNlXIGAyRZKEW_Ss5jBu8WtRIlIFY4d2vQBsOjJsq3PPHBsfZD0hwjqyJuhjeuEu6cgt73FANiB40OA5g' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Oh I get it, this wasn't real, it was a “performance,” with the lump on the ground
standing up wearing cardboard butterfly wings that the woman was hitting.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">I still had no clue what was going on here, but I did some
research and discovered that there is a made-up tale about a “Butterfly Woman” and
the mental health consequences of a woman assaulted by soldiers during time of war--although I suspect that they were actually "expanding" their definitions here. Of course no sexual assault was being
“performed” and this was more about DV or how a mentally-impaired woman acts; however, what this "performance" more likely conveyed was the "feeling good about feeling bad" syndrome that is best "understood" by those trying to convince themselves and not confused onlookers. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">By the way, this is a video going around the Internet reportedly showing a Muslim girl being beaten for committing some "morality" crime. This is truly horrific, save for one thing: the more I look at this video, the more I'm convinced that this is not a female that is being beaten, and it is thus being used for propaganda purposes, which of course brings out the cynicism in me:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzrnxC10y0TSp9EQ01nNrV67Du54vsv0DjdH3mWh7CKbCY3BLgKeKUC7ipqBcHX_DTI-qVB9NoKeTqUBTx_aA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">There was a time when it was assumed that common sense and adherence to factual information informed public debate, but such things do not matter in a broken world where such things merely get in the way of power and its abuse--even to the extent to which those person who do have those qualities are forced to "compromise" for even a few crumbs that the fanatics are willing to "sacrifice." This year more than any other people need to make the right choice--not influenced by short-term paranoia and fear, and lack of respect for their rights of others both in law and in principle--but in careful consideration of what damage such thinking will result in the long-term.</span><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"> </p>
Mark W. Kittellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767307312025397299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201311015829526785.post-21022960688259092002024-02-13T14:16:00.000-08:002024-02-13T17:08:11.453-08:00ABNORMAL<p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Sometimes life is
a self-fulfilling prophecy. Remember the Times Square “incident” in which
“migrants” reportedly from Venezuela were seen kicking NYPD police officers? It looked "bad" and it
didn’t have to happen, no thanks to the police looking for an excuse to beat on someone. The group of men who
were not blocking anyone on the sidewalk complied with the police orders to move on, apparently
because they were Hispanic and you can treat them anyway you want because they
are just “vermin” who don't belong anywhere. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">One of the men in a yellow jacket is seen ready to join the rest, pushing a carriage down
the sidewalk. Suddenly without justification one of the cops grabs him and
pushes him violently toward the building. It is only at that point things got
out-of-hand:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ymzj34L0kU8" width="320" youtube-src-id="Ymzj34L0kU8"></iframe></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The question should be
why did the police act in this way; these immigrants thought they were escaping this kind of abuse in their home countries. If these people were white, they would have been
ignored, and if they were black, there would be “outrage” over the police abuse
that instigated the incident. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">This incident coincided with Curtis Sliwa
and his “Guardian Thugs” mauling an “illegal immigrant” on camera during an
interview with Sean Hannity; <span></span>Sliwa
claimed out of the blue that he had been seen “shoplifting.” Turns out the man was a US
citizen and was not accused of said crime—only “disorderly conduct”; yet it was Sliwa’s
racist vigilantes who instigated the incident who were of course not charged with
assault and false arrest.<br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The immigration
system in the country has been broken for a long time, much longer than most
people think, or know why. In 1948, the so-called “El Paso Incident”—the subject of
the uncompromising “social message” film of the same year, <i>Border
Incident</i>—occurred in which the Bracero program was briefly suspended
because of alleged abuses (Mexico agreed to it because it feared losing
“skilled labor” to the US), but under pressure from US agribusiness, US
officials allowed thousands of undocumented workers to enter through El Paso.
This action blurred the distinction between “legal” and illegal” in the minds
of migrants doing the farm work, and has ever since been a source of hypocrisy in this
country, with migrant workers abused by both “the system” and for “politics.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">With that out of
the way, let’s talk about the term “abnormal” and what that means these days.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>The Merriam-Webster Dictionary</i> defines
the word <i>abnormal</i> as “<span class="dttext">deviating from the normal or average” or “unusual in an unwelcome
or problematic way.” That begs the question of what is “abnormal” in this country
today, since the line between "normal" and "abnormal" has become increasingly blurred. In the world I grew-up in (mainly the 1970s) the difference was fairly straightforward, a "simpler" time. It was characterized<span> </span>by this symbol…</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="dttext"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrvkP9S45UkHOwwDNv1NQiKkN9CmyD-3it6tl1uxte4lZWugpsRi85iXc9IWfQJnTDr5cbV_TQtl22SUTjEFIKelYHHhuv9w3H4jIq77tj3gAauhRE0hdtOtfOjGmEVo_Z3I05L6tXfp6vqd0pFSk8m2UfjaVaYJx9sUxoXQUrUVDQSNn21P1SEjKPnCQO/s600/st,small,507x507-pad,600x600,f8f8f8.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrvkP9S45UkHOwwDNv1NQiKkN9CmyD-3it6tl1uxte4lZWugpsRi85iXc9IWfQJnTDr5cbV_TQtl22SUTjEFIKelYHHhuv9w3H4jIq77tj3gAauhRE0hdtOtfOjGmEVo_Z3I05L6tXfp6vqd0pFSk8m2UfjaVaYJx9sUxoXQUrUVDQSNn21P1SEjKPnCQO/s320/st,small,507x507-pad,600x600,f8f8f8.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="dttext">…punctuated by the best decade for popular music…</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="dttext"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="dttext"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY3fCiv92q9z2akB3Ys-ZAycCofg1chlDDlsI7Bch5kKQlAydL5xDeiwYWjlD974e18BGZYPGX_FWX7elVR7RKupsZPoRufkNLZl0hagSkIszIJJyVu-4DfBy0vl-Epu2-Dyqe5DJ-7FP0xqebRvQRtpFqzi26ZA3DvR6WK9NT1nvUpqvbHjIBgoJvAfI2/s761/Screenshot%202024-02-05%20110511.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="761" data-original-width="752" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY3fCiv92q9z2akB3Ys-ZAycCofg1chlDDlsI7Bch5kKQlAydL5xDeiwYWjlD974e18BGZYPGX_FWX7elVR7RKupsZPoRufkNLZl0hagSkIszIJJyVu-4DfBy0vl-Epu2-Dyqe5DJ-7FP0xqebRvQRtpFqzi26ZA3DvR6WK9NT1nvUpqvbHjIBgoJvAfI2/s320/Screenshot%202024-02-05%20110511.png" width="316" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="dttext">…and what most film scholars regard as the greatest decade for film,
not just by American “auteurs” but also foreign filmmakers who would expand the
definition of “art film” in a way never before or since attempted (Derek Jarman's <i>Jubilee</i> is a good place to start). </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But that doesn’t
mean it was free of worries and cares; in fact the 1970s political scene brought
about a crisis of confidence and conscience that perhaps for the last time saw
a shared belief in moral and ethical behavior. Sure, the Vietnam War was
winding down to a close, but there was the oil embargo, brazen terrorist
activity (the Munich Olympics), “stagflation,” the Iran-Hostage Crisis, and the
loss of manufacturing and union jobs. My mother insisted that we move to the "country" so that we could grow our own food just in case of the "collapse" predicted by the <i>National Enquirer</i>. <br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Although he never mentioned the word,
Jimmy Carter’s so-called “malaise” speech was in time “heard” by many as a
criticism of the public rather than the government, and people didn’t want to
hear that they were to “blame.” <span>Thus many voters were ready for something "completely different"; they just didn't realize how "different" that would eventually become.<br /></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">While many films
of the Seventies tackled the question of political corruption and paranoia,
politics (outside of social concerns) was mostly absent from the music scene, with punk rock, Marvin Gaye's <i>What's Going On</i> and Stevie
Wonder’s “You Haven’t Done Nothin'" being exceptions. Music, often loaded with lots of orchestration,
provided an escape, three or four minutes of imagining the world how you wished
it would be, not how it was. And the "real world" wasn't much "fun."<br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">So in
retrospect, there was one thing that was “normal” about the 1970s politically:
morality and ethics was far from dead, and that was proven by the Watergate case.
After the release of the “smoking gun” tapes, which revealed that Richard Nixon
had not only been lying for two years that he knew about the Watergate
break-in, but was actively involved in covering up the crime. He found himself
completely abandoned by most of his remaining supporters in Congress. Impeachment
and conviction was inevitable; he was told so in a private conversation with
Republican leaders, and Nixon eventually did the "right thing," releasing this letter:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOM4aGcDCQNgJlHGtvm_HCbAnafUGF9CjD31L3a6TtV0ksjJpPiNdxJZfrwNMlmmYAek4yfvHQTbJ9i-O9fmGFN3paX8wTZ2AL099PmqMI6BBW77EzCQM6qB8Ku0JsA35wngduQwlFzoHwGeYRA2LBJR1qtuOwS0e358U7rsFUJKOJkUw1g36uZE7t0X-j/s1051/Letter_of_Resignation_of_Richard_M._Nixon,_1974.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1051" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOM4aGcDCQNgJlHGtvm_HCbAnafUGF9CjD31L3a6TtV0ksjJpPiNdxJZfrwNMlmmYAek4yfvHQTbJ9i-O9fmGFN3paX8wTZ2AL099PmqMI6BBW77EzCQM6qB8Ku0JsA35wngduQwlFzoHwGeYRA2LBJR1qtuOwS0e358U7rsFUJKOJkUw1g36uZE7t0X-j/s320/Letter_of_Resignation_of_Richard_M._Nixon,_1974.jpg" width="244" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Those were
“normal” times. As in the past, crooked deals and crooked actions were quickly
brought to justice. Nixon’s own VP Spiro Agnew resigned from office after being
charged with tax fraud and bribery (sounds familiar, doesn’t it—I mean the
charges, not the result). Politicians were once elected for the dignity and respect
they brought to their responsibility both to their constituents and the
country. Voters wanted orderly government, not a clown show from
representatives who had no respect for their responsibilities, their
constituents or even themselves. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But that changed
with the onset of the 1980s. Ronald Reagan told everyone to put that “smiley
face” back on while he began the process of making this country worse off than
it was before by abandoning ethics and morality in politics and society
forever—beginning with the secret “deal” with the Iranians not to release the
hostages before the 1980 election, and later selling them weapons in the
Iran-Contra scandal; this was an impeachable offense, but people were yet
unwilling to put “criminal” motivations on a president whose mental health was
in question even before the 1984 election, which didn’t seem to bother voters
who elected him in a landslide.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Some people, like Chris
Christie, think Reagan was the last “great” president. I beg to differ; that “October Surprise” when Reagan made that secret deal with the
Iranians to hold the American hostages until after the election which was political corruption at its core. Reagan oversaw
the continuing collapse of domestic manufacturing jobs in favor of low-wage service jobs
in this country, the average unemployment rate was higher post-WWII than for any
other administration that lasted at least 4 years, an EPA run by criminal
flunkies of business interests, gave us Clarence Thomas, armed and funded
right-wing murder regimes in Central America whose impact is still seen on the
border today, was fortunate that he was regarded as near mentally-incapacitated
and thus not “responsible” for Iran-Contra—which otherwise would have been an
impeachable offense given its treasonous implications for selling weapons to a
state-sponsor of terrorism against the US—and worst of all, his “trickle-down
economics” began the unstoppable wealth gap in this country, aided by dropping
the top marginal tax rate (a New Deal policy to counter the wealth gap) from 70
percent to 28 percent. Yet all people saw was this former film “star” who made
them feel “good” and cracked jokes on occasion. </span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">What we see is
that in “normal” times, corruption—whether personal or political—was dealt with
harshly and without question. That is no longer "normal." Thanks to Trump and his MAGAmaniacs, "normal" behavior has become something that impedes their trampling of moral and ethical behavior. and their abnormal (well, hypocritical at least) has become the new "normal." There is no "distinction" between normal and abnormal; what "normal" people consider to be "abnormal" behavior and beliefs now makes themselves "abnormal."</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Today, abnormal behavior controls this country. We have people in Congress like Jim Jordan who refused to abide to a
subpoena to appear before the January 6 committee, yet he blathers on about
people who about people who question the subpoenas he issues just to put on
show to expose his asinine personality. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Where once people like Marjorie Taylor
Greene and Lauren Boebert would be considered temperamentally and
intellectually unfit for office—an embarrassment to the people they claimed to
represent, they now seemingly reflect a populace that is less “patriotic” than
obsessed with "grievance." Matt Gaetz and Josh Hawley have no intellectual depth, so
they engage in attention-seeking sound bites that because of their stupidity
makes them more dangerous. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">In Texas, Gov.
Greg Abbott overseas a regime that is even more corrupt than Ron DeSantis’ Florida.
This is a state that most people get the idea it only "works" for white people despite the fact that whites are now in a minority but benefit from gerrymandering. Did you know that Texas was a Confederate slave state, and the impetus for the "Texas revolution" was because the white Southerners who were allowed to immigrate to the territory didn't trust the Mexican government to permit them to keep the slaves they brought there? </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">All the talk is about about the “border crisis” while “behind the scenes” the
state’s speaker of the House, Dade Phelan was just “censured” by his fellow
Republicans “for lack of fidelity to Republican principles and priorities." Priorities maybe if they mean temporarily sidetracking their far-right agenda, but what did he do to offend their sense of "principles? Phelan enabled the impeachment of one of the most corrupt officials
(and Trump favorite) in the state’s history, Attorney General Ken Paxton.
During his Senate trial, witness after witness gave damaging testimony against
Paxton, yet the Republican in the state senate to a person voted for acquittal, and they took
their revenge against Phelan. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Paxton is so shady that he was seen on video
surveillance in the very courthouse he was being charged with securities fraud stealing an expensive pen belonging to someone else
at the metal detector station:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw6KmphlMtWA1S2Ma6NMuORnI32-mSjQUT6HxF8RVrpcNxdMYv6EgUCgtCiD157lVbX-N2IxTlnX9KdiXnLlfnNjK8GgXlusHDReJlaKdzmutG2z1UFM1MSLCEpiqe0_JCK1L1yojb7z6NixM6YPZ7k20hg1s3-i69RrXKJI7BDyKmYE-GqHWx4VpCc7PR/s259/Untitled.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="259" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw6KmphlMtWA1S2Ma6NMuORnI32-mSjQUT6HxF8RVrpcNxdMYv6EgUCgtCiD157lVbX-N2IxTlnX9KdiXnLlfnNjK8GgXlusHDReJlaKdzmutG2z1UFM1MSLCEpiqe0_JCK1L1yojb7z6NixM6YPZ7k20hg1s3-i69RrXKJI7BDyKmYE-GqHWx4VpCc7PR/s1600/Untitled.jpg" width="259" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Yet despite this white Texans continue to show
their own moral and ethical corruption by voting him in office three times.
This year Paxton still faces multiple trials on those federal criminal charges including bribery. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Republican abnormality may
seem a “clown show” to some, but it is far from "amusing." Marjorie
Taylor Greene—who was recently “removed” from a restaurant for drunkenness—says
she “speaks” for Americans, but I’d say 90 percent of Americans disagree with
her assessment. She may speak for your typical trailer trash type in her own district…</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0pmFRMwgu64vS-VeigoQm0-GWkJMaOboJHlbamv9roEOXCuuXhyjfPonhz3MutheAj0gmyKIzW2z2o_bMTYr5HNLrcJfL8okcKbm2-esKrwIFf7EN17oEktSobzOuCvPhk3fr986tOblZg4VaaRzgDzL7kKIHZDnnwcGp1Fn3Cd0VTUiZDHiCr1U-XqE5/s1024/Marjorie-Greene-CAMPAIGN-AD-2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0pmFRMwgu64vS-VeigoQm0-GWkJMaOboJHlbamv9roEOXCuuXhyjfPonhz3MutheAj0gmyKIzW2z2o_bMTYr5HNLrcJfL8okcKbm2-esKrwIFf7EN17oEktSobzOuCvPhk3fr986tOblZg4VaaRzgDzL7kKIHZDnnwcGp1Fn3Cd0VTUiZDHiCr1U-XqE5/s320/Marjorie-Greene-CAMPAIGN-AD-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">…but most people
with some sense of decency do not act in this way:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0fHkW4kJYKU" width="320" youtube-src-id="0fHkW4kJYKU"></iframe></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">There are a lot
of abnormal people in Congress, with MTG just the loudest and most obnoxious
type. The fact that people vote for her merely because she is “different”
displays how abnormality has become the new “normal” for many people,
principally white people with a “grievance.” Mike King, a professor of criminal
justice, called this “white socio-political hegemony through challenging
efforts to materially address racial inequality, supporting investment in
policing, prisons and military, and perpetuating a narrative of anti-white
racial oppression.” For the anti-intellectual, the thought process doesn’t
go far beyond such sentiments:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr2Uq9YwQca1_yumzhgNs-OStSFa89R8nYoczcQbPSMkZ8BTFPdaS9jSzPf6OP7RPTzTs4Uy-nHAIdyq3UxC6aF1I5TJWveLDphumWJyvjOvD8iF_mJk3oGHJzBOOZByrju_QQSpdM0XnOgp3ebNYdq6W3VCrrBAXkm7UCr1mcLBpY9hOJ0LNd12q2WQCs/s1024/nc_new_white_billboard_150113.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr2Uq9YwQca1_yumzhgNs-OStSFa89R8nYoczcQbPSMkZ8BTFPdaS9jSzPf6OP7RPTzTs4Uy-nHAIdyq3UxC6aF1I5TJWveLDphumWJyvjOvD8iF_mJk3oGHJzBOOZByrju_QQSpdM0XnOgp3ebNYdq6W3VCrrBAXkm7UCr1mcLBpY9hOJ0LNd12q2WQCs/s320/nc_new_white_billboard_150113.webp" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">This is all
plainly hypocritical to those familiar with reality; these people live in their
own lily-white world and they want to keep it that way; “genocide” to them
simply means they are running out of places to escape to without seeing one of
“them” and being forced to interact with “them” on a human level. But they put
their blame on the wrong people. They actually think that Trump’s 2017 tax cut
for the rich was supposed to help <i>them</i>?
Oh sure, he and the Republicans tried to fake them out by reducing their tax
withholdings on their paychecks; the result of course was that for the
“benefit” of saving a few dollars a week that were hardly noticed, they see their tax
refunds cut in half. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Of course you
have people like Greene and Abbott talking of “secession.” What if all those
states controlled by far-right Republicans became “independent” and were no
longer part of the Union? In those states the most vulnerable people to the
oppression of white “grievance” would no longer be protected by federal civil
rights laws. But hold on: those most "needy"—and by the numbers the majority are white—would no
longer be protected by federal social safety net and medical care programs.
They would be even more under threat from low income and low services that their
representatives have told them for decades is "good." </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Unfortunately,
things seem to be getting more “abnormal” by the minute. The U.S. Senate was
once a bastion of “reasonableness,” but Trump’s influence has destroyed that in
the wake of only four Republicans voting to advance the “bi-partisan” border
bill for floor debate. The hypocrisy of course is that the bill is bad for
immigrant rights and doesn’t even address DACA after a far-right Texas judge
with an anti-immigrant agenda has once again deemed the program “illegal” which the far-right 5<sup>th</sup> Circuit Court of Appeals will likely
uphold. Most recipients of the program have been on it for 12 years; if you
think they should go “home” now, then you’ve already checked your humanity at
the door. I just wish you’d stay outside. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">None of this
means anything to all but four Republicans in the Senate, just ask Lindsey
Graham. I mean really, if Mike Johnson is a spineless coward, Graham at least
gave him an “example” to follow without his “credibility” suffering
unduly—because, you know, having “principles” and sticking to them is not
something to be respected. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But we all know about Graham and unprincipled idiots
like Ted Cruz. What we now find coming out of the woodwork is people like J.D. Vance,
the self-styled Ohio “hillbilly” whose claim to fame was his rags-to-richs
“memoir” <i>Hillbilly Elegy</i>, which is in
fact a political tract full of far-right dog-whistles and diatribes aimed straight for the white nationalist ear. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">It was enough to
get Vance elected as a spokesperson for aggrieved white people, and he has gone
forward with ever more absurd election conspiracies, claims that we are in a
“post-democracy” period where “the people” want an “authoritarian” government,
and that if the Supreme Court interferes with this “interpretation” of the
Constitution, then people of the ilk of Trump have a right to ignore their
rulings. This may well be where this country is headed if people don’t get
their heads on straight and recognize the danger. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Who votes for someone
like Vance? <i>New York Magazine</i> notes that he won a primary that was a “race to
the bottom” among competing Republicans eager to get the endorsement of Trump. Vance
once disparaged Trump; now he sounds like a guy eager to join Greene to start an
insurrection himself if Trump isn’t reelected, the Constitution and the courts
be damned: "In case you still harbored the faintest hope that the party has
some moral red line, its unquestioning affirmation of Vance ought to dispel it.”
And that of course goes for the people who elected him; Ohio, like Indiana and
western Pennsylvania, is full of far-right “Butternut” voters whose origins are
from neighboring Southern states.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Vance is fancied
in some quarters to be an “intellectual,” but <i>New York</i> points out that his
ideas are nothing but empty slogans and generalities that have become increasingly chaotic. As we saw on his
appearance on ABC News with George Stephanopoulos</span><span style="font-size: x-large;">, </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">justifying anti-democratic
and anti-Constitutional actions are becoming increasingly “acceptable” in many
quarters, and people need to wake up to this. A piece in </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: inherit;">Vanity Fair</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> on the “new
right” by James Pogue seems completely befuddled by the danger politicians like
Vance pose, allowing him to declare unhindered by comment this:</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>We are in a late republican period,” Vance
said later, evoking the common New Right view of America as Rome awaiting its
Caesar. “If we’re going to push back against it, we’re going to have to get
pretty wild, and pretty far out there, and go in directions that a lot of
conservatives right now are uncomfortable with.</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Of course Julius
Caesar overthrew the “republic” which had already been succumbing to rule of
dictators in the form of consuls who controlled large armies to enforce their authority,
as well as controlling the “mob” with “bread and circuses.” Like Republicans in
Congress, Roman senators proved themselves incapable of governance and willingly
handed over power from the consuls to the imperators. They still remained as
figureheads as a sort of “nobility” paid to do nothing or simply be a
rubberstamp Reichstag. <span> </span>Why should they
do anything else? Trump’s people are going to be running things anyways:</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>I think Trump is going to run again in 2024. I think that what Trump
should do, if I was giving him one piece of advice: Fire every single midlevel
bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state, replace them with
our people.</i></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Considering the fact that
a lot of blacks are in government jobs, they should think twice about staying
home for this election. And that is not all, confirming what he told
Stephanopoulos:</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>And when the courts stop you,” he went on, “stand before the country,
and say —” he quoted Andrew Jackson, giving a challenge to the entire
constitutional order — “the chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him
enforce it.”</i></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">No one should find it “amusing”
when these far-right fanatics talk about “the country”; they are not in fact
doing that, they are talking about themselves. They talk to far fewer people
than they believe; the problem is that many voters simply don’t think about
what they are doing. People vote for Greene, Vance and Trump because they are more “like themselves.”
What exactly does that mean? Only sociopaths vote for a sociopath. Vance goes on:</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>What changed my mind about Donald Trump more than anything is that I
saw the corruption in our institutions. A lot of what this campaign is about —
and a lot of my own thinking about politics is about — is that our institutions
are corrupt. We have to replace the people who run them. Some of those institutions
we have to destroy.</i></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Corrupt people make corrupt
institutions, and Trump is the single most corrupt individual ever to hold the
office of the presidency. Corruption is in his blood; Nixon did corrupt things he knew to be unlawful and he eventually accepted his responsibility for it. But Trump is simply a corrupt individual for whom doing corrupt things is the “normal”
way of doing things. He doesn’t think in terms of “ethics” or “morality.” When
people like Vance talk about “corruption,” they are merely talking about people
who stand in the way of authoritarianism and their” “own people” being corrupt.</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">This is the new “normal” in this
country. It wasn’t that long ago that it would have been called abnormal, but the blurring of the lines has been in germination since at least the Reagan administration. </span></p><p style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">I recall
when I was in the Army during that time there was a radio broadcast celebrating Black History
Month; a white soldier who I knew to be racially insensitive said with just me
to hear it “How come there is no ‘White Month?’” To a point I can understand
this “grievance”; as one of those “vermin,” that “black national anthem” sung
during the Super Bowl wasn’t about lifting <i>my</i>
voice but keeping it silent, while gender activists don’t “speak” to me other
than promoting negative stereotypes to keep me beaten down. </span></p><p style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But I know self- serving hypocrisy when I hear it: “Because every other month is ‘White Month,’” I responded.
That shut the guy up; but today, such hypocrisy is “the truth.” </span></p>
<p style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">"Abnormal” thus defines the current state of affairs. It has become our "reality."</span></p>
Mark W. Kittellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767307312025397299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201311015829526785.post-24414110778387037362024-02-01T15:37:00.000-08:002024-02-01T16:56:39.383-08:00The Privy of the Universe, revised edition for 2024<p> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The 18<sup>th</sup>
Century French satirist Voltaire wrote that “Opinion has caused more trouble on
this little earth than plagues or earthquakes” and that “Those who can make you
believe absurdities (i.e. Donald Trump and his election conspiracies) can make
you commit atrocities (i.e. the January 6 insurrection).” But my favorite bit
from Voltaire’s <i>Philosophical Dictionary</i>—under
“Optimism,” or if using the literal French translation, “All is Good”—is this
version of the Adam and Eve story:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>The Syrians pretended that man and woman
having been created in the fourth heaven, they resolved to eat a cake in lieu
of ambrosia, their natural food. Ambrosia exhaled by the pores; but after
eating cake, they were obliged to relieve themselves in the usual manner. The
man and the woman requested an angel to direct them to a water-closet (i.e. a
toilet). Behold, said the angel, that petty globe which is almost of no size at
all; it is situated about sixty millions of leagues from this place, and is the
privy of the universe—go there as quickly as you can. The man and woman obeyed
the angel and came here, where they have ever since remained; since which time
the world has been what we now find it.</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Yes, in this
world which prides itself as being the only “confirmed” bastion of “intelligent”
life, what exactly that “intelligence” has been used for is a matter of
debate—although if one be honest, that would be a short, one-sided affair. This
poor planet, which just wanted to take its place among the heavenly orbs to
drift aimlessly about the universe without a care in the world, found itself infested
with a life form that was fascinated with first creating and then tearing down,
imbued with the mania of having “more,” the “need” for “bigger,” “faster” and more
“powerful”—whether to “benefit” the individual or a political unit. It wasn’t
enough to just live and get along with one’s neighbors; as Walt Whitman
confessed about his admiration of other species of life:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>They
do not sweat and whine about their condition,<br />
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,<br />
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,<br />
Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of<br />
owning things,<br />
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of<br />
years ago,<br />
Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">So our poor
Earth, through no fault of its own, has had to suffer being the privy of the
universe, not just seeing the abuse of its gifts, but the follies of human
nature: disreputability, indefensibility, irresponsibility, destructibility, cupidity
and just plain stupidity. Take for example what is going in in Gaza, where
Hamas militants were trained and supplied by a rogue Iran to engage in a bloody
raid in Israel; they managed to accomplish that, but to what purpose? In a
somewhat grandiose display of revenge, Israel’s military reprisals have only
been by a factor of 20 of what it suffered, killing over 25,000 including an
estimated 8-10,000 children. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">When it is over,
what do you expect will happen? Maybe the average person in Gaza and Israel might
want a rest, but perhaps in Gaza their vengeful “representatives” and their
patron will not have learned anything. Iran in particular only sees mass death
as part of its “master plan” to convince the world that its peculiar brand of homicidal
ideology is "justified," and will set about rearming and retraining its latest proxy in crime, if only as more cannon fodder to annoy those it finds domestically useful to call enemies.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">As they say,
stupid is as stupid does. The modern human race has 100,000 years of existence, and it
is difficult to assess what benefit “intelligence” has bestowed upon it as a long-term thesis, just short-term grandiosity and humiliation in turns. Once
the human race just killed what it needed for food like any other beast of the field
and jungle. Now, it kills out of greed, vindictiveness, self-pity, mental
disturbance, egotism, and sometimes just plain arbitrariness and
opportunism. Rulers and generals have casually sent masses of men at each other to kill
as many of each other as possible—and whichever side killed more, in went the
reinforcements to finish the mess and take the battlefield, for whatever it was worth. Countries and peoples just can’t stay home and take care of their own dirty
business.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Of course
individuals leave their own execrable mark on the world. Take any
mass-murderer, or a simple California woman high on marijuana who went into her
kitchen, grabbed a steak knife and stabbed her “date” 100 times. A judge
sentenced her to one day of community service per stab, justifying this by
claiming she didn’t know her mind. Oh really? Sometimes a psychopath doesn’t
reveal themselves until all societal inhibitions are removed. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But surely our
“leaders” are supposed to steer us in the path of righteousness and humanity,
right? Well, maybe self-righteousness and inhumanity, out of deliberateness or foolishness. Take for example the paper published by the McCourtney
Institute for Democracy at Penn State University, asserting that today, “Americans
not only are divided, but baffled by what motivates their opponents.” Not
surprisingly, it suggests that Republican voters are much more consumed with blind
hate than their counterparts, the latter who are at least willing—get this—to
allow “moral” motivations to the opposition. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">That is too
“generous” by half. Corruption, paranoia, stereotyping, race hate, xenophobia, cruelty, maliciousness, cupidity, ignorance, hypocrisy—these are supposed to define
“morality”? If you support such a person for office who promises to bring all that to the table to inform policy, then something of that must dwell inside of you as well. Well, some of you <i>are</i> “moral”
about some things, I suppose. More guns to kill “those” people, and opposing abortion
and gay rights. That’s it??? Hell, Trump doesn’t even give a damn about that stuff;
he’s just about all that other stuff. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">This video tells
us all we need to know about a man who is neither stable, nor a genius, but
someone who if reelected will be as Hitler was—a completely immoral and evil
man out to take vengeance on the world for "crimes" he imagines were committed against himself, but too mentally lazy to form actual policy
on his own, preferring to deploy henchpersons eager to prove their “loyalty” by
out-doing each other in evil to please—and take advantage of—a man as dangerously stupid
as this:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kKEeOs64iuU" width="320" youtube-src-id="kKEeOs64iuU"></iframe></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Not that Nikki Haley is necessarily <i>that</i> "better" an alternative; still being in her "mental prime" only means her MAGA madness is not as apparent if you don't listen close enough to what she says between the lines. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Trump—who
claimed the stock market would collapse if Joe Biden was elected in 2020—now
takes “credit” for the record-breaking Dow Jones average; he claims that this
is “his” economy, you know, the one that in 2020 saw the biggest GDP and employment
drops since the Great Depression? This is supposed to be in response to
the “assumption” he will be elected in 2024. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Now, intelligent people might
actually say the opposite is true: that stock prices, GDP and inflation are improving
because Wall Street would prefer <i>not</i>
to see Trump elected, given the chaos he and his henchpersons have in their
minds (if such a thing exists to form intelligent thought). Of course since the economy is unlikely to be a winning case to vote stupid, the "border crisis" that House Republicans oppose a Senate-induced "fix" for that is barely more "humane" than their own will have to do. As the <i>St. Louis Dispatch</i> editorialized, migrants are being used as "culture war cannon fodder" in this election year.<br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">In recognition
that this is an election year and the privy-dumping that goes along with it
(mostly being excreted from the Republican side), I’m going to compose my own
“philosophical dictionary,” and instead of wasting time composing one long and
exhausting “dictionary’ of terms that define the present-day privy we call the
US of A as originally intended, I’m just going to post this as an
“introduction” and move on from there.</span></p>
Mark W. Kittellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767307312025397299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201311015829526785.post-6642292344661192892024-01-20T20:54:00.000-08:002024-01-21T12:18:16.741-08:00Though heavy underdogs, Packers loss to 49ers frustrating in game they should have won<p> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Coming into
today’s divisional playoff game with a continuous rain likely to effect play, the
49ers had the Packers number in recent years, quite different than the Favre
era when the Packers were 7-0 in the regular season and 4-1 in the playoffs
against them; during the Rodgers’ era the Packers were a horrible 0-4 in the
playoffs against the 49ers, and staring at 0-5 since Favre, being 10.5-point underdogs. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Packers took
the ball down the field on their first possession, but it ended touchdownless,
(although I thought it was DPI on the pass to Romeo Doubs in the end zone); a short field goal was the result. On the 49ers first possession Darnell Savage dropped a
pass right in his hands with a clear field before him, preventing a second-straight
game with a pick-6. Brock Purdy may be a better quarterback than Dak Prescott,
and I had this feeling that this play would be a bad omen for the Packers. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">A
sack of Purdy gave the Packers the ball back. A pass to Musgrave was behind
him, but another DPI gave the Packers another first down; 49ers linebacker Fred
Warner made a couple of big hits to seemingly bring a halt to the drive, but Dobbs made a big 38-yard play on third
down as the first quarter wound down; although the Packers out-gained the 49ers 102-22 in first quarter, they led only 3-0. In
the rain, Love was apparently unable to consistently get a grip on the ball, and that also seemed to be a problem with Aaron Jones after the first quarter. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Packers moved the
ball down to the 49ers 14, but a quarterback sneak failed on fourth down. Again
another failure to convert on a golden opportunity to score even a field goal that could have devastating
consequences. The 49ers then drove the ball down the field effortlessly. A 32-yard
pass to George Kittle made it 7-3 and I knew it was "over" then. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Although
Jones was effective on the first drive, he was mostly non-existent for the rest
of the half. A long pass to Jayden Reed got the Packers down to the red zone
for the third time, but consistent pressure on Love forced another bad pass and
the Packers had to settle for a field goal (they could have retaken the lead
had they settled for a field goal on the previous possession). </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">One had to feel
the Packers were losing out on the opportunities they needed to take advantage of
to keep the 49ers on their heels, because if the Packers fell behind, the 49ers
were too good a team not to keep the pressure on Love. On the final possession
of the half—meaning the 49ers would have an extra possession as they would open
the second half with the ball—the Packer defense had an opportunity to keep the
49ers out of field goal range but failed, but fortunately a 48-yard attempt was
missed. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The 49ers went into the half with just a 7-6 lead. The problem of
course is that the Packers had three red zone opportunities and should have gone
into the half with a 10-point lead at least, and maybe more if Savage had held
on to that easy potential pick-6. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Last week,
despite dominating the game for the most part, the Cowboys outscored the
Packers 25-21 in the second half. So yes, I was concerned, not the least
because, well, the 49ers were the top-seeded team in the NFC, though still
beatable. The Packers needed a defensive stop on the first possession of the
half. They got that stop, but could they take advantage to take control of the
game with a touchdown? <span> </span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">After Jones lost
11 on a fumbled snap and with the officials missing a clear facemask penalty
to set-up a third-15, another fortunate DPI gave the Packers ball for a fourth
red zone opportunity, and Love managed to find Bo Melton in the end zone for a 13-7 lead. Could the Packers much maligned defense hold, and better
yet, force a turnover?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Horrible
coverage on third-and-long resulted in another 32-yard play by Kittle, and the
next play Christian McCaffrey ran right through the defense on a 39-yard run,
and the 49ers were back in the lead 14-13. As quickly as that disaster happened, Keisean Nixon responded by taking the kickoff 73
yards; he fumbled the ball, but fortunately it was recovered by the Packers. In
the red zone for the fifth time in the game, the Packers retook the lead on a
pass to Tucker Kraft. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Packers made a questionable decision to go for two,
but Jones was wide open on the catch and the Packers were up 21-14. This game
clearly could have been a blowout like last week at this point, but instead the pressure
was on the Packer defense to perform, which it did not do on the 49ers previous
possession, giving up two huge back-to-back plays.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Nixon missed an
easy interception deep on the 49ers’ end, but the Packer defense held serve
this time. Could the Packers offense put the pressure on the 49ers by taking a
two-score lead with decent field position after the punt? Jones was not having
a good game since the first quarter, slipping on the wet field to lose yardage. Then
came the play that Packer fans dreaded: Love threw a bad pass wide of Kraft
that even if he didn’t tip the ball had interception written all over it, and
the 49ers—instead of operating deep on their own end after a punt, had the ball
at midfield. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The defense had
a chance for an immediate stop, but allowed a conversion on third-and-long. The
defense had a chance as long as they kept the pressure on Purdy who was
throwing some of his own misfires. Heading into the fourth quarter the Packers still had a
7-point lead with a 49er field goal attempt around the corner. Up to this point
the rain was clearly a factor, but especially for Jones, who had gained just 11
yards since the first quarter. It was up to Love to make the plays. The field
goal was made, the Packers were clinging to a 21-17 lead, still “impressive”
given the fact that they were 10.5-point underdogs.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Packers
continued to be unable to run the ball after the first quarter, although except
for the McCaffrey TD run the 49ers were not running the ball well either. Love
didn’t make the play he needed to make, as he narrowly avoided another interception
with terrible pass on a makeable third-and-short, and the Packers were forced
to punt for the first time. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Packers were still looking that game-clinching
turnover, and they just couldn’t do it. Then came that effing play that made
you start pulling your hair in frustration; on third-and-10, Purdy had all day
to connect with Jauan Jennings on a 21-yard pass into Packer territory.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But this time it
was Purdy who frustrated his fans, misfiring to force a punt. At that point in
the game, Purdy completed just 17 of 32 passes, although it was noted that his
was repeatedly wiping his hands even in the pocket. Did I say Jones was not
having a good game? He just broke open for a 53-yard run. The Packers needed a
touchdown; instead more misfires by Love was followed by Anders Carlson missing
a 41-yard field goal attempt, and the game remained a one-score game, and the
defense still looking for that critical turnover with over 6 minutes to play.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The 49ers
methodically took the ball down the field, running out the clock as Purdy found the "touch," completing 6 of 7 passes. At the
2-minute warning the 49ers had a first down at the Packer 15. My heart sunk like a rock
into the abyss. Purdy scrambled for 9 yards to the Packer 6, and McCaffrey took
it the rest of the way for a 24-21 lead with over a minute left. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The game ended with another poor pass deep somewhere in the general vicinity of Christian Watson that was intercepted, made worse by the fact that the Packers still had two time outs with just under a minute to play and didn't need to throw deep to at least get into tying field goal range.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">You know where
Carlson’s emotions were at, but there was plenty of blame to go around for the
loss. The defense failed when it needed to show-up the most, but the missed
easy interceptions were the most damaging. The offense also
had much blame to shoulder, particularly the wasted opportunities in the red
zone and bad misfires on Love’s part. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Although Jones gained 100+ yards
for the fifth-straight game, he scored no touchdowns and the one play that he
made was wasted on the missed field goal. The earlier failure to convert on fourth down on an otherwise easy field goal opportunity also turned out to be a poor decision in retrospect.<br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">So the Packers
did make a game of it despite being heavy underdogs, but this was a frustrating
game nonetheless since the Packers should have won this game. If the Packers had held on to win, the only "good" team left was the Lions (after the Eagles loss), with the Super Bowl beckoning. There is next
year, and we perhaps we can expect something more from this experience.</span></p>
Mark W. Kittellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767307312025397299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201311015829526785.post-16101817299269905212024-01-18T16:42:00.000-08:002024-01-18T19:13:25.493-08:00Sometimes you just have to suck it up and take what the world will allow you to have<p> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">I must confess
that I don’t really understand why there are so many people on the street, like
this woman:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI1Ccv6fVjoHfbpikZUVkC9aYSps-fL3bsjdgmZ6nZQ292Ni6hkq8IEY7TEeF6NdIiptMTYTRKfLbhxEJRAZ1XAOVxpvVGweaxRtZbDFZ1lpWqk0aw6aDM2M1MYdKJ_tb-bqY0H8IZryRxa8qexv6mnPRISbrF7j-Xe4b3L1xqq40NTk0cpzmG4BEiV93C/s4160/IMG_20240114_125941013.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3120" data-original-width="4160" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI1Ccv6fVjoHfbpikZUVkC9aYSps-fL3bsjdgmZ6nZQ292Ni6hkq8IEY7TEeF6NdIiptMTYTRKfLbhxEJRAZ1XAOVxpvVGweaxRtZbDFZ1lpWqk0aw6aDM2M1MYdKJ_tb-bqY0H8IZryRxa8qexv6mnPRISbrF7j-Xe4b3L1xqq40NTk0cpzmG4BEiV93C/s320/IMG_20240114_125941013.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /> </span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Part of me feels
sympathy, but another part of me says people have choices, and those can be
either good or bad choices. I know what it is like not to have a place to live,
but my mindset has never been influenced by what can’t be done, but what can be
done. Making enough money to live and to buy things (like my video collection,
which fills a 10x10 storage unit) has always been something that is “second nature”
to me, and as bad as things can be, there is always a way to move on from one
catastrophe to the next. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">There is always
temp work, and I am not particularly conscious of the fact that I have a
university degree, which isn’t the first thing 99.99 percent of people I
encounter perceive anyways (I encountered a white woman in Seattle the other day walking down the sidewalk who looked at me and said “Oh what the hell, you can
have it.” What was she talking about? The “country”? Some "Great Replacement" bullshit? Hell, she can “keep” it and keep
making a mess of it as we see happening in the other Washington; I just “live” here). What is the point of feeling any
mortification in taking any job available? Especially ones requiring the minimum
of interaction with judgmental people.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Frankly, all you
need to get off your fundament is a phone number and a mailing address<span> </span>(a mail box will do)--and a work "ethic." For some people, laziness is a habit, like a drug. Even if you live on the
street like this individual, it is easy to at least get something on your
“resume” if you at least have those things. For temp work
all you have to do is walk in the door; if you are a female, there are certain jobs that only you are "capable" of doing, if it requires being more “nimble” with your fingers.<br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">I’m sure people
will say that this had a bad childhood, or something; but that didn’t stop me from just moving
on with life. There are pages and pages of women-only organizations
specifically designed to help people like her if she wanted the help.<span> </span>There were very few people or organizations designed to help me; I
had to help myself, although it “helped” that I more or less had a good work
ethic so that I lasted a little longer in jobs than I might have, given my “loner”
nature that often makes me frustrated with the trials and tribulations of
dealing with the vagaries of other people. Thankfully I’ve “tolerated” other
people long enough to be near retirement age. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Still, what is
the problem with this individual? I was in the alley long enough to observe her temporarily
rouse herself in order for me to ask her if she had any place to go; she mumbled
something that I didn’t quite make out, but I assumed it was in the negative.
In the part of the building I was working in I could observe her from a window
directly overhead. She went back to sleep, then roused herself again to light
up what from a distance appeared to look something like a cigarette with some
roundish object attached to the end of it…</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAHqroVNg7Yo0j2YyB2_DaTSvpRNRMPWKvwQRSM3PagBqak6jTG2YPqFj4_gCnsz1k7IsM6dWNJqUUbLjkDQCTcoHrmL8Ljh2Hn7eRM8ZlYdQv7p_VXwVhvxZd-aX5NNn2mL36UUgXOgJs7ayIKPJS7jY9hQHExIIXGTCI-ABdAgLY6C_ULfHHY1Cvx7fS/s4160/IMG_20240114_125720077.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3120" data-original-width="4160" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAHqroVNg7Yo0j2YyB2_DaTSvpRNRMPWKvwQRSM3PagBqak6jTG2YPqFj4_gCnsz1k7IsM6dWNJqUUbLjkDQCTcoHrmL8Ljh2Hn7eRM8ZlYdQv7p_VXwVhvxZd-aX5NNn2mL36UUgXOgJs7ayIKPJS7jY9hQHExIIXGTCI-ABdAgLY6C_ULfHHY1Cvx7fS/s320/IMG_20240114_125720077.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">…and what she
exhaled was chalky-white smoke. I am not “street-smart,” so I had no clue what
she was indulging in. Later I did some Google investigating and finally found
this image which appeared to suggest what she was ingesting:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBygtLtui6Cull0z4XA8FpGkWQIPnoONlRPs1IW1Q5KswWANf63PXr1XkHY68fiJK-U1l4JnmO2ERnNxnxRG9v7id4nuBhfggMGnCO3TfjaCyaPfcx_3S5M6eBu8wKVPtNJLQCb1MuI7C3T5Kabti9pyOB5K15DNhwUUpeP64SrtBGNTnHrYXfN1uDADvt/s900/meth.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="900" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBygtLtui6Cull0z4XA8FpGkWQIPnoONlRPs1IW1Q5KswWANf63PXr1XkHY68fiJK-U1l4JnmO2ERnNxnxRG9v7id4nuBhfggMGnCO3TfjaCyaPfcx_3S5M6eBu8wKVPtNJLQCb1MuI7C3T5Kabti9pyOB5K15DNhwUUpeP64SrtBGNTnHrYXfN1uDADvt/s320/meth.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">According to the
accompanying article, what she was smoking was meth. Later I observed an
individual stop to talk with her. I took this shaky video of what he was
“helping” her with—smoking more meth:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyRSM8iH2d7SQ1KAkk2-D_E-OFl3PdKr49DJcwdjziYgYmYpcjUwsxHJ-GSOFsFuM0TyyPjAgb6Ma7Q4w0Z6A' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">I suppose that is what it "takes" to make life "tolerable" for some people; me, maybe a good book will do. Sometime after that she left the alley, taking her belongings save her blanket and pillow,
so I assumed she would be back. However it rained the next day and these became
soaked and unusable, so I figured she just found another place to sleep. What
does she and others like her do during the day? From what I can tell, they just
“hang out” on the sidewalks. If they need something to eat, there are 27 food
banks in Seattle, and those are “busy.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">I have to admit
that things have changed dramatically in Seattle in the last decade or so. I
don’t know if it is because of a flood of H-1B visa immigrants with different
cultural values and interests (particularly South Asian), or the “Amazon
effect,” or the "generational" thing in which the current demographic is less interested in "philosophical" musings or artistic "merit." But one thing for sure is that people quit spending their money
downtown, and that is why the city has a shuttered look, at least on the ground
level. But while the subsidized low-income apartment behind the office I work in
appears to be have been closed (with a lot of old refrigerators and bed frames
cluttering up the alley for a few days),<span>
</span>Danny Westneat in the <i>Seattle Times</i>
tells us that while homelessness in Seattle is thus rising, everywhere one
looks things are at least<span> </span>rising
“skyward”:</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Up and down Union, across from Rainier Square, almost every storefront
is shuttered, with tents and scattered pockets of drug activity filling some of
the doorways. Even inside the Rainier Square complex, which on a recent day
felt fancy, fresh and very well-guarded, most of the street front retail spaces
are empty. PCC will open another hole when it gives up after two years downtown
in January. But up above, it’s another atmosphere. Same city. Same block. Much
different story.</i></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>On the top floor, three out of the four penthouse suites are rented,
while the fourth is currently available. “Starting at $19,999” per month, the
ad says. Starting? That’s $239,988 a year in rent — the price to gain entry to
a three-bedroom with 12-foot ceilings in the tallest residential tower on the
West Coast. If that’s too rarefied, a few floors down on level 55 you can get a
two-bedroom for $15,000 a month.</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But even if you have that kind of money, there is simply
nowhere to go in downtown Seattle anymore. No book, record, video or computer
software stores for over 15 years, just the tourist junk shops on the piers, and Starbucks and that ilk. All the theaters that showed second-run and foreign films are gone. There
used to be a 24-hour Burger King next to a redeye bus stop; those are a distant
memory. There used to be four McDonalds in downtown; now there is just one that
only has walk-up service. Hell, there used to be an adult store that did most
of its business in the wee hours of the night. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The once grand Bon Marche is
dead to the world; it was rebranded “Macys” and then shuttered for good in
2020, and most of its floors were rented out to Amazon—but only "temporarily" since the company began
pulling out of Seattle permanently allegedly due to “crime concerns” but more likely because it is cheaper to "farm out" staff returning from remote working to other locations. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Crime is frankly a
bit overstated because there are few places to "rob" and what does happen is usually between "consenting" adults with problems to "work out"; the highest incidence of the crime actually occurs elsewhere, mainly in Rainier
Valley, population two-thirds black/Asian (principally Filipino, from a country that has its own problems with gang violence). The only "worthwhile" place
to go that is “free” is the central library, although when the weather is nice
I just like to find a spot to sit on the pier and do my typing. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Of course if you
are one of those people who spend their lives “hanging out” as professional
vagrants, even at relatively young ages, it is the way of the world. People are who they are; I could be doing what they are doing, but I'm just not "wired" that way. I lost my "shame" about who I imagined myself to be long ago.<br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p>
Mark W. Kittellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767307312025397299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201311015829526785.post-20620728648166793092024-01-16T15:30:00.000-08:002024-01-16T15:33:42.986-08:00NYC high school migrant "controversy" brings out the best and worst in people--and of course the worst wins<p> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">So while House
Republicans who have hypocritically refused to approve additional funding for
border security and yet engage in their politically-motivated impeachment games
with current target (after looking like idiots during Hunter Biden’s “surprise”
appearance) being Homeland Security head Alejandro Mayorkas—parading about their
only piece of “evidence,” an anecdotal incident involving an MS-13 gang member
who they forget to mention<span> </span>was “bred” in
the U.S.—as “proof” that the country is less “safe” with migrant families in
the country. <span><br /></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Of course it is
pointless to point out that crime statistics show migrants are much less prone
to violent crime (since that is what they are escaping from in the first place),
and border cities have less violent crime than most other U.S. cities, and that
MS-13 and other Hispanic gangs account for only a tiny percentage of
gang-related homicides in this country. That doesn’t matter; if they were not
here, such crimes wouldn’t happen. Too bad that “logic” doesn’t apply to the “natives.”
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Republicans and
other xenophobic types of any ideology thrive on depicting migrants as
something less than human, applying the worst characteristics to their “nature,”
while ignoring their own massive defects. A recent incident involving migrants
and a New York City high school once more gave us a picture of the dark heart
that beats in some people, fed by hate and ignorance that is fueled primarily
by the right but can also be found in those who believe in the victimhood of
their own “group.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">On January 11,
70-mile-an-hour winds and rain persuaded NYC officials to give 500 migrant families
being kept in a tent city at a mostly abandoned airfield 12 hours of crowded shelter
in the gymnasium of the James Madison High School in Brooklyn, having students
at the school take remote classes for a day. Some of these migrant families are
from Ecuador, which I talked about last week, a once more or less peaceful
country suddenly upended by the importation of drug violence in the past few
years; they must feel this is the “price” they must pay for not being
threatened with death every day.</span></p>
<p class="css-at9mc1" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Schools have
often been used to provide shelter during emergencies, but only for “our
people,” apparently. A human city education department spokesman said “turning
our back on the most vulnerable is not what we stand for,” and one of the
migrants from Ecuador said the experience at the airfield had been
“nerve-wracking,” especially for the young children. But save for shelter from
the wind, “sleeping” in seats in the school gymnasium until 2 AM when they were
told to prepare to leave was apparently to some less “stressful” than the
experience of students who just stayed home to do what they had been doing for
a year during the pandemic. </span></p>
<p class="css-at9mc1" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The negative
reaction from right-wing pundits, politicians, parents, a few students and even
that moron Elon Musk demonstrates that ignorance of the situation migrants come
from and the lack of public discussion about what behaviors <i>this</i> country can modify to create more
livable environments for migrants to “happily” remain in their own countries—and
because there is no such discussion, we see what is happening now, and some people
are hypocritical enough to be “shocked” by it. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">According to the
local newsletter <i>The City</i>, “pundits raged
about a supposed ‘takeover’” of the high school, despite the fact that <span> </span>students were only “inconvenienced” with
having “one day of remote lessons on Wednesday, with after-school activities
canceled and a dance scheduled for that evening postponed.” Poor babies. For
those concerned with “vermin” scurrying about their school, “School officials
said the NYPD had thoroughly inspected the building and custodians gave it a
deep clean before students and staff returned on Thursday.” As if the school
hadn’t needed one for years. I’m not going to say where this school is located
at, but it begins with a “D” and it is “open” for “business”:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJniL2PHE3N4NdA3hZmqVRJDlaN7hcet63mESoJ_eDTBXzdrYJiChZQQ-Ea5aR99kLlAw9ko0lCGyM-vQtm7Wfy-_0ZTADxkgAxwyGIma5cDbe7fdzvnRjqFk9SqnwXMGZjtd63XLkwXAVzEjllECElN1znzWvPYlsyEXJ5Z0HGVh5rDq0755K3UpZ01Zc/s660/c5636896-731a-4c40-a752-83fb2abaccae-DetroitSchoolsTouchChoices_DISPLAYONLY.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="370" data-original-width="660" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJniL2PHE3N4NdA3hZmqVRJDlaN7hcet63mESoJ_eDTBXzdrYJiChZQQ-Ea5aR99kLlAw9ko0lCGyM-vQtm7Wfy-_0ZTADxkgAxwyGIma5cDbe7fdzvnRjqFk9SqnwXMGZjtd63XLkwXAVzEjllECElN1znzWvPYlsyEXJ5Z0HGVh5rDq0755K3UpZ01Zc/s320/c5636896-731a-4c40-a752-83fb2abaccae-DetroitSchoolsTouchChoices_DISPLAYONLY.webp" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">While Musk
opened his own filthy mouth to proclaim that migrants “will come for your homes
next”—one wishes it would be his home, which could probably comfortably house
100 families—“Angry commentators flooded the school’s Facebook page... ‘They
are putting these people over our students...That school needs to be disinfected.’” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">An “agitated
mother” stood outside the school to heckle the migrant families entering the
school in the rain, probably resembling the way “agitated” white parents “heckled”
black students entering previously all-white schools during desegregation in
the South. “During a Zoom call hosted by Principal Jodie Cohen and Office of
Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol, the two were shouted down by
several outraged parents, several attendees said.” </span></p>
<p style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Local politicians of course got
into the act. <i>The City</i> went on
“Assemblymember Michael Novakhov (R-Brooklyn) held a rally outside the school Wednesday
where he invoked the white nationalist ‘great replacement’ conspiracy theory,
saying that ‘they wanna bring more and more people who rely on the government
and vote for them.’ Republican Councilmember Inna Vernikov, who represents
parts of southern Brooklyn, made the rounds on national television to complain that
‘our kids are really being punished.’” </span></p>
<p style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">How, exactly, are they being
“punished”? Most students interviewed didn’t see what the “big deal” was, and some
expressed sympathy for the migrant families. But of course there were a few
influenced by their parents’ bigoted views: “’They put them over us students
which is kind of crazy,’” said a 15-year-old. Another student lamented the
school no longer felt safe for her. ‘It doesn’t feel like my safe space. It
usually feels like my safe space.’” Like families with small children are “dangerous”?
And you call yourself “human”?</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The inhumanity and prejudice
that underlies such views is truly despicable, although as usual the <i>New York Times</i> forgets its own reporting
on events in places like Ecuador where some of these migrants are escaping, and
feed into the paranoia: “The outrage was the latest political eruption over the
tens of thousands of migrants crossing the southern border in recent months.
Republicans have attacked Democrats over how they are managing a crisis that
has overwhelmed government agencies.”</span></p>
<p class="css-at9mc1" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The outrage of
the few naturally outweighed the humanity of the many who took the situation in
stride, so long as it was for just a day; according to the <i>Times</i> “’We don’t foresee us using James Madison High School again,’
said Zachary Iscol, the city’s emergency management commissioner.” But this
certainly wasn’t going to be the only storm that the poorly-sited migrant camp
was going to face, which was already making travel to schools and services
“exhaustive” for migrants. But that is of no concern to the bigots: “Every time
there’s a flood, are they going to find a new school?” asked Vernikov, the
conservative city councilwoman whined to everyone who would listen. </span></p>
<p class="css-at9mc1" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Note she
doesn’t offer any alternatives, save, probably, to “go back where you came
from.” I blame most of this on broadcast media. It is so eager to show people
images of a border in “crisis” without explaining to them what created this
“crisis.” I have talked about the reasons here ad nauseam, but one suspects
that the powers behind the scenes do not want the public educated about any
honest assessment of U.S. culpability. Gen. Smedley Butler once said this about
<span> </span>U.S. involvement in Latin America…</span></p>
<p class="css-at9mc1" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="color: black;">I spent 33 years
and 4 months in active service as a member of our country's most agile military
force -- the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from a second
lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period I spent most of my time
being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the
bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for Capitalism.</span> <span style="color: black;">Thus I helped make Mexico...safe for American oil interests
in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank
boys to collect revenues in...I helped purify Nicaragua for the international
banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-12. I brought light to the Dominican
Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras 'right'
for American fruit companies in 1903</span></i></span></p>
<p class="css-at9mc1" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">…but economic
exploitation<span> </span>(which included U.S.
companies adhering to their<span> </span>own
slave-labor “laws,” and destroying infrastructure they built after they were
done exploiting so it could not be used by the natives they exploited) wouldn’t
even be the worst of it. The only thing that has “changed” to any degree is the
U.S.’ desire to run away from its guilt. Rather than “guilt,” we are told,
there is “shock” that the high school story was even a “story.” </span></p>
<p class="css-at9mc1" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">There are those
who are embarrassed by all the publicity, but of course it wouldn’t be a
“story” at all—or if it had to be, it could have been as an indication of the
better side of human nature—unless one side wanted it to be one so they could exploit
it for nativist political purposes to inspire fear and loathing; I mean why
else would they be on national television using the episode to demonize and
dehumanize migrant families who just wanted a safe place to stay for a few
hours? I mean do these people even hear themselves? Sometimes I wish there was
a “God,” because I know where these people won’t be headed to when they pass
on.</span></p>
Mark W. Kittellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767307312025397299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201311015829526785.post-65803208003968520652024-01-14T18:28:00.000-08:002024-01-18T12:42:53.229-08:00The Packers still "own" the Cowboys as they have since 2008 with impressive Wild Card win<p> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">As I mentioned
last week, the Packers have had the Cowboys’ number in the post-Favre era, winning
7 of their last 8 regular season games against them (one the 23-point
come-from-behind win behind Matt Flynn), and two playoff wins. Make that three
playoff wins against the Cowboys and 10 of the past 11 meetings against the
Cowboys. The Packers actually won 8 of the first 9 meetings against the Cowboys—two
of them the last two NFL championship games of the Lombardi era—which meant
that the Packers were just 4-15 against them in between. Still, overall, the
Packers are a “surprising” 22-17 against the Cowboys.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">And the Packers
had won five straight in the Cowboys new stadium, including the 2010 Super
Bowl. So the Cowboys’ No.2 seed position didn’t mean much when the pressure was
on; this was a team that had a reputation for not playing well under pressure,
and could get into trouble if it fell behind early. Furthermore, despite
winning one Super Bowl with the Packers, Coach Mike McCarthy had over time
become the object of frustration for Packer fans during his tenure, although to
what extent that was his fault could be speculated, as we saw the Matt LaFleur
was no more successful that McCarthy in getting Aaron Rodgers to make the plays
in the (next) biggest game. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">McCarthy was probably
familiar with the defects in Rodgers’ game, but he had never seen Jordan Love
before. Listening to the game on the Packer radio network, it was just one big
play after another as the Packers were seemingly unstoppable until their last
three-and-out possessions that might have been concerning if the Packers were
facing a Brady or Manning; but instead it was Dak Prescott, who threw two first
half interceptions, one returned for a touchdown by Darnell Savage (his first
INT of the season), and another by Jaire Alexander (his first of the season)
that gave the Packers the ball in the red zone and another easy touchdown. The
Packers had intercepted only seven passes in 17 games in the regular season. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Although the
48-32 score seemed “competitive,” it was hardly that for most of the game.
Just how bad was the Cowboys' defense? They were so focused on stopping Cowboys-killer Aaron Jones—who topped 100 yards for the fourth straight game and scored three rushing touchdowns--that it allowed itself by the time the third quarter came around to be completely faked-out by TE Luke Musgrave, who pretended to be a blocker and was allowed to run out to a completely abandoned part of the field to catch a pass and run to the end zone unmolested:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZVLkwT4DJbSZPpb5SxnHpYBiuTihrmbZlUUmANuQEscVMeMqFI-Y4T85vIptTQUhhB9LM6KiwbUfn-5gXCmjftXJDzH-vRXiXfqVxlvO2XoUqM_IUnEaDuH_X0Rq5KerWlZFpNYeKOPzFy7yDfFWQ6-StX7W6ICwQL1R0SdTR4HmiguR41ge8mdykYGFX/s940/Screenshot%202024-01-18%20122755.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="809" data-original-width="940" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZVLkwT4DJbSZPpb5SxnHpYBiuTihrmbZlUUmANuQEscVMeMqFI-Y4T85vIptTQUhhB9LM6KiwbUfn-5gXCmjftXJDzH-vRXiXfqVxlvO2XoUqM_IUnEaDuH_X0Rq5KerWlZFpNYeKOPzFy7yDfFWQ6-StX7W6ICwQL1R0SdTR4HmiguR41ge8mdykYGFX/s320/Screenshot%202024-01-18%20122755.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">For a Cowboys fan, it was that kind of day. On a
93-yard drive aided by a 39-yard completion to Romeo Doubs and finishing with a
20-yard TD pass to Wicks, it was just that easy. Savage’s pick-6 in the second quarter made it a mind-blowing 27-0 before
the Cowboys—who averaged 35-points-per-game during their 16-game home winning
streak—finally found the end zone on the last play of the first half, but the way the Packer offense was lighting-up the field, this reminded one of the Seahawks blowing out the Broncos in the Super Bowl; the supposedly "superior" Cowboys looked like a beaten team with their minds too scrambled to understand what had happened to them and what to do about it.<br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Each team traded
points in second half until a loss on downs by the Cowboys on their own end led
to a TD pass to Dobbs and 48-16 lead early in the fourth quarter. The game felt
over by then, but the Cowboys scored a couple touchdowns in “garbage time” and
they actually got down to the Packer 29 with over a minute to play, and, you
know, anything is possible with another TD and two-point conversion and then an
on-side kick conversion and all of sudden it is “Hail Mary” TD pass and two-point
conversion from OT. Fortunately with a team like the Cowboys that was pure fantasy,
and the heavy underdog 7<sup>th</sup>-seed Packers “stunned” the football world
with their “upset” win in a game they clearly dominated throughout most of it.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">As mentioned,
Jones gained over a hundred yards and scored three touchdowns, and Love was
nearly perfect, completing 16 of 21 for 272 yards and 3 TDs. The only “blemish”
on his day was coming in at the end to throw an inconsequential incomplete
pass, which ruined his chance to be only the fourth quarterback to have a “perfect”
158.3 passer rating in a playoff game. Prescott himself threw for 403 yards, but
on 60 pass attempts. The Cowboys ran 89 total plays for 510 yards with 37 first
downs, which really doesn’t look that great for the defense on paper, but
fortunately the Packers did more with their own opportunities; their 54 offensive
plays resulted in 6 touchdowns. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Packers play
next on the road against the top-seed 49ers, who lost to two teams—the Vikings
and the Bengals—who didn’t make the playoffs. Do the Packers have a chance? Well,
no one thought the youngest team in playoff history had a chance against the Cowboys, either. And younger guys play like they have something to prove.<br /></span></p>
Mark W. Kittellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767307312025397299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201311015829526785.post-36587258083341847082024-01-11T15:35:00.000-08:002024-01-12T11:42:34.032-08:00Whining and whiners everywhere in this country--except those who have the most reason to<p> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Whiners,
whiners, whiners everywhere in this country. In a society there are women of all
sorts (mainly “victim” activists and self-serving feminists), hypocritical black
folks, self-promoting people of the Jewish faith, and I even see television commercials whining about “racism” against
Asians, when they are really saying is stop whining about us just because we’re smarter
than you. We also have to tolerate the whines of “nonbinary” people, who think
it is “disrespectful” if what you see isn’t “real.” Then there is the whiners
in politics, from both sides but more frustrating and hypocritical from those
on the right.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The only people
you don’t hear “whining” in this country are Latinos (unless they are Latinas
joining their gender victim-obsessed “sisters”), either because they are rendered
voiceless because they don’t “matter” save as an object of free-for-all hate, or
they are too divided by “ethnicity” to be able to come together as a group,
much as you can’t expect blacks and whites to join together for their “shared
experiences” with racism—except, of course, when they can find “common ground” with shared paranoia against brown-skinned people, who in this society essentially exist between
a rock and a hard place. </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">OK, so there has
been some weak efforts by the "mainstream" at “assimilation” and "inclusion" to prevent any misplaced whining. Take for example a Latino as the <i>lead </i>in
a “superhero” film, in this case Warner’s DC film <i>Blue Beetle</i>, which was an even worse bomb at the box office than Disney's MCU film <i>The Marvels</i>. But then
again, it was just a “token” crumb that wasn’t expected to do well and the
studio didn’t even really care.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: inherit;">Digital Spy</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> noted that Blue Beetle never
had a chance despite a Rotten Tomato score of 76 percent (double that of
Aquaman 2) and a 92 percent audience score, because its lack of promotion and that while Blue
Beetle might have his fans in DC Comics, you can't call the character a well-known property. "It's hard to quantify exactly how much the lack of
promotion hurt at the box office, but it certainly didn't help in trying to
establish a new superhero for the wider audience. There was virtually no
promotion for it.”</span></span></p>
<p class="css-ofixhy" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">However, “Where
the movie is more successful is rooting itself in Latin culture, both in the
references and the topical subject matter. It might not be subtle and the
superhero elements get in the way of deeper exploration of its societal themes,
but at least <i>Blue Beetle</i>'s generic story is told with a specific,
unique viewpoint.”</span></span></p>
<p class="css-ofixhy" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Unfortunately,
while black “culture” (such as in the <i>Black Panther</i> films) is widely supported by those feeling “guilty” about being
accused of racism, there is no such “guilt” about feeling “it’s not about us”
in regard to Latino life or concerns in this country, since they are assumed to
be “foreign.” </span></span></p><p class="css-ofixhy" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Instead, the Latino community has been blamed for not “supporting” the
<i>Blue Beetle</i> enough (since it was "made" for "them"), but others have pointed out that this was a bit of a token gesture since it is a minor character in
the DC universe that few people knew or cared existed; although unlike Disney’s
MCU which hasn’t even bothered to create a superhero character for a Latino
actor, Warner simply threw the Latino audience a crumb off the table that few
were willing to scramble for. </span></span></p><p class="css-ofixhy" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But while <i>The
Marvels</i> saw people complain about the “misogyny” behind its box office
bombing, there has been a mostly </span></span><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]--><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">blasé</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">attitude from Hispanics generally, with mainly</span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> this kind of idiot thinking on a Reddit discussion page as to why the Latino
community didn’t “support” the film:</span></span></p>
<p class="css-ofixhy" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: inherit;">I doubt that, as it's not "white
Hispanics" who are running around saying "BROWN PRIDE" and it's
usually darker-skinned latinos telling people like me that we're not
"true" Mexicans or whatever. It's really sick thinking, this kind of
racism. These "native pride" people need to fuck off or risk
committing harm against another minority group again.</i></span></p>
<p class="css-ofixhy" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> I replied to this in the usual way:</span></span></p>
<p class="css-ofixhy" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: inherit;">How about effing-off with that Euro-elite
"pride" and admit your racism? Nobody invited or gave your ancestors
permission to take the lands indigenous peoples occupied for tens of thousands
of years before Europeans showed up when they had their own countries. The
least you could do is show them some "gratefulness" and respect for
their loss.</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">New studies indicate that indigenous peoples began “squatting” in
the Americas as early as 33,000 years before the first Europeans, Africans and
Asians showed up, and those peoples didn’t ask the natives' permission to do so,
particularly when Europeans were already “squatting” in the lands they claimed as their
own. Modern humans coming out of Africa only began “squatting” in what is now
Europe about 50,000 years ago; the difference is the travel time and distance,
and when the ice “land bridge” was in existence. </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yet we live in a society where a “brown-skinned” Latino with
indigenous blood who thinks “white,” <span>Nick
Valencia, a third-generation Latino who considers himself full-blooded
American, felt the need to post (or was allowed to post) on CNN’s website a
comment on his experience in a time defined by ignorant bigots and xenophobes
in the poisonous atmosphere of hate fueled by far-right politicians, whose idea
of “fixing” the border problem is simply to keep those who “look” like him out, as they have been trying to do for a century:<br /></span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: inherit;">Evidently, to some the
brown color of my skin means I’m not even American. My friends and family tell
me what I experienced that night is a microcosm of what is happening to Latinos
across the country. You don’t have to look hard to find it. In news stories, in
political discourse, on talk radio, in everyday conversation it seems it has
become OK to treat Latinos in a negative and antagonistic way – whether they
are new immigrants or longtime Americans. The anti-immigration legislation
sweeping across the United States has made this plain. People in my Latino
networks say they’ve noticed the change. And now I understand what they mean.</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He might be accused of "whining" too, but then again he might as well be another voice in the wilderness, because who is listening? In this
election, many people will only see “red” on the issue. </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Far-right Republicans in the House of Representatives are
of course increasing their abusive rhetoric about migrants on the border in
time for the upcoming election, which of course should be seen as both cynical and
hypocritical. The House passed an immigration bill that Jean
Lantz Reisz in <i>The Conversation</i> tells us that immigration law as it stands
today already makes it virtually impossible for any migrant to apply for
asylum: </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Undocumented migrants entering the United States have few plausible
options to legally stay in the country. For many migrants fleeing their
countries due to violence, war, government collapse, natural disasters or any
personal threats that could harm them, the only legal pathway of immigrating to
the U.S. is by receiving asylum.</i> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">She goes on to say that</span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: inherit;">The proposed change that would deny asylum
to those who have traveled through a third country is identical to a Department
of Homeland Security rule that the agency adopted under former president </i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/asylum-ban-trump-administration-blocked-by-judge-today-2019-07-24/"><i><span style="color: black;">Donald Trump’s administration in 2019</span></i></a><i>…Republicans are proposing other laws to
make it harder to receive asylum. One change would require asylum seekers to
present a large amount of evidence proving their fear of persecution during
their first interview with a government asylum officer – not later, when they
go before a judge. The law would also end programs that allow migrants to stay
with sponsors in the U.S. while seeking asylum. </i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>In summary, the proposed
changes would make it almost impossible for a migrant entering through the
U.S.-Mexico border to get asylum, even if that migrant has a legitimate fear of
returning to his or her home country.</i></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Republican law would also bar any migrant from asylum if they passed through a "safe" third-party country. But as <i>The Guardian</i> pointed out many times,
no “third country” is safe from the “hell” the U.S. helped create:</span></span></p>
<p class="dcr-rysp4a" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: inherit;">Much of this current instability can be
traced back to the June 2009 ouster of its then president, the erratic leftist
Manuel Zelaya. Though the then US president Barack Obama declared the ouster
“not legal”, his administration subsequently worked with regional powers such
as Mexico to assure Zelaya did not return to office.</i></span></p>
<p class="dcr-rysp4a" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: inherit;">After Zelaya’s overthrow, Honduras was run
by a series of rightwing leaders. When the most recent of them, Juan Orlando
Hernández, looked likely to lose his re-election last year to the former
journalist Salvador Nasralla, his government responded with a repression that
Amnesty International characterized as having “violated international norms and
the right to personal integrity, liberty and fair trial guarantees”.</i></span></p>
<p class="dcr-rysp4a" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: inherit;">During El Salvador’s civil war, which lasted
until 1992 and killed an estimated 75,000 Salvadorans, hundreds of thousands
fled to the United States, especially to southern California. There, young
Salvadoran boys found themselves endangered by local gangs and coalesced into
their own groups, including Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13.<br />
<br />
When some of these young gang members, not US citizens though culturally
American, were deported back to El Salvador, they took California’s gang
culture with them. The gangs have since proliferated throughout Central
America. Though MS-13 remains the bete noire of Trump and his acolytes, the
American origins of the gang go almost unreported.</i></span></p>
<p class="dcr-rysp4a" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: inherit;">All this being the case, it is rather
irresponsible for the United States to take such an active role in creating the
conditions that make people want to flee the countries that make up the Central
American isthmus and then profess shock when they do so.</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Author and
political commentator <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/author/belen_fernandez_201163082655120314"><span style="color: black;">Belén
Fernández</span></a> has also written that the so-called “third country” provision is
a farce, also noting that there is no “safe” country in Central America, or is
Mexico, as this political cartoon tells us:</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCxCmwzSAgdm1ydI-G3w3ZgeaGkq-9Hf7WTA2ehD51oqhcpLhekbo3W8YoL2u9EA0uCeBHZS4y7Zev7TWSpTQWX3jwE3EUr6Vlx5Y4fvak9d0CDZMtY3EoO-8SQ41jcadTpE8D8sbJQQjmCnQtNhQPCj3VpErM0nQ9MQi1Prq1R6dZ8NymaO0yKkQG1YCh/s800/-mexico-mexicans-social_problems-drug_wars-drug_dealers-gron270_low.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="613" data-original-width="800" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCxCmwzSAgdm1ydI-G3w3ZgeaGkq-9Hf7WTA2ehD51oqhcpLhekbo3W8YoL2u9EA0uCeBHZS4y7Zev7TWSpTQWX3jwE3EUr6Vlx5Y4fvak9d0CDZMtY3EoO-8SQ41jcadTpE8D8sbJQQjmCnQtNhQPCj3VpErM0nQ9MQi1Prq1R6dZ8NymaO0yKkQG1YCh/s320/-mexico-mexicans-social_problems-drug_wars-drug_dealers-gron270_low.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><br /><p></p><p class="ekqk" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Fernández adds that </span></span></p>
<p class="ekqk" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: inherit;">The US’s own role in fueling violence in Central America’s Northern
Triangle has been well known for decades – from its habit of backing right-wing dictators </i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>and death squads to its continuing support for<u> </u></i><i>homicidal </i><i>state security forces. In the aftermath of
the US-facilitated<u> </u></i><i>coup</i><i> in Honduras in 2009, that nation became
more unsafe </i><i>than ever. And across the region, the
US-exported model of neoliberal oppression has constituted a form of violence
in its own right – perpetuating extreme inequality and condemning the masses to
often existence-imperiling economic misery. </i></span></span></p>
<p class="ekqk" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The level of violence
has been exacerbated by the virtually unobstructed flow of guns from el Norte,
with U.S. manufacturers reaping the “rewards” of death:</span></span></p>
<p class="ekqk" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: inherit;">But one of the most crucial aspects to consider when contemplating US
complicity in the appalling unsafety of the Northern Triangle is the sheer
volume of US weapons circulating in the region…Foreign Policy </i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>reported</i><i> that Trump was “sending guns south as
migrants flee north”, with his administration “pushing to weaken oversight of
gun exports”.</i></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: inherit;">And yet the cross-border mobility of US armaments is nothing new. Back
in 2014, Harry Penate – the former attache to Central America for the US Bureau
of Alcohol, Firearms and Explosives – spoke</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><u> </u>candidly about the significant role
American guns were playing in the epidemic of violence in the region, which was
already causing a northward exodus of refugees. According to Penate’s </i><i>estimate</i><i> at the time, half of the illegal weapons in
murder-plagued<u> </u></i><i>El Salvador </i><i>were<u> </u>from the US.</i></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The New Yorker’s <i>Jonathan Blitzer cited</i><i><u> </u>reports that 49 percent of illegal
and unregistered weapons recovered in El Salvador came from the US; in </i><i>Honduras</i><i>, it was 46 percent, and in Guatamela </i><i>29. While the causes of Central American violence were manifold,
Blitzer noted, “American firepower facilitates it.”The US, in typical
privatisation-obsessed fashion, has contracted with PMSCs in various countries
“to provide assistance to the public security forces”, but the companies are
perhaps better known for their services in protecting elite wealth,
safeguarding the corporate exploitation of resources (including by repressing
indigenous and environmental activists), and generally assisting in the
proliferation of the neoliberal miracle.</i></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: inherit;">This becomes even more consequential when we consider that current and
former military and police often work in private security, as well. In El
Salvador, “active members of the military are allowed to work with or own
private security firms”. In Guatemala, meanwhile, “private security firms have
been tied to extrajudicial killings”.</i></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: inherit;">In November 2018, the</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Miami Herald <i>wrote about the Honduran military police’s
apparent use of US weapons to kill political protesters. The article quoted the
US State Department on how “human rights concerns” were among the numerous
factors taken into consideration when evaluating direct commercial sales of US
weaponry to other countries. Also considered, the statement continued, was the
“promotion of American industry”. But in the end, profit always trumps human rights</i><i> – and while the US arms industry is presumably feeling pretty secure
right about now, it is safe to say many people in “safe third countries” are
not.</i></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Instead, negative stereotyping and sensationalized stories are swallowed whole by the general public about Hispanics. I've already talked about how there is very little factual evidence in regard to human and sex trafficking, with definitions and numbers created out of thin air. The film <i>Sound of Freedom</i> made by QAnon adherents has "surprised" some people with its box office gross of close to $200 million, but critics have pointed out that most of it takes extreme liberties with the facts, and its real-life "hero," Tim Ballard, concocted a completely fictional account of his adventures that those who are actually on the ground say do not conform with the reality. In fact, Ballard and at least one of the producers of the film have been accused of using their position to "convince" women to consent to sexual acts as part of the "audition."</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But "on the ground" the real issue is violent drug-trafficking gangs and cartels who are<span>
</span>filling Americans insatiable need for illegal drugs are tearing
apart those countries, but that is not of concern to most mainstream media outlets, where we see headlines like this (in a story written by <i>The Seattle Times'</i> Sara
Jean Green, taking time out from her usual sexual violence crime stories to make a paranoid, scapegoating,
racist border statement…</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglVcy8yoTkfNMx3B_0v8kmR8ANoReJuHOTzfE1pQJZLXjO9kBo79kHbLEOI1ckIn0LaBk14rnZZK9KmBH_8lijlK0bsxTqVhaVQopxJk3d5_VaBIm-GaeO1DkGr9vNyro9yiRqNaGvzQEQgAz9nwCc9MqlwbC4j9gh9zsKmfaMiLU1W6tSEhrNjHnWfsSE/s4160/IMG_20240101_221606352.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3120" data-original-width="4160" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglVcy8yoTkfNMx3B_0v8kmR8ANoReJuHOTzfE1pQJZLXjO9kBo79kHbLEOI1ckIn0LaBk14rnZZK9KmBH_8lijlK0bsxTqVhaVQopxJk3d5_VaBIm-GaeO1DkGr9vNyro9yiRqNaGvzQEQgAz9nwCc9MqlwbC4j9gh9zsKmfaMiLU1W6tSEhrNjHnWfsSE/s320/IMG_20240101_221606352.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">…while failing to note
that "victims" have only themselves to blame if they use something that they know is dangerous, or the role of China as the principle source of fentanyl and its ingredients, and the fact
that as ABC News pointed out that while Mexican cartels may be the "middleman" in the
supply chain, they are not the “dealers” who are selling fentanyl on the
street, but your regular U.S.-born and bred Joes: </span></span></p>
<p class="ekqk" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: inherit;">Fentanyl isn’t just a street drug. It is also a legal painkiller than
can be given safely under the right circumstances. When it comes to why some
people overdose after taking fentanyl and some do not, it’s really “the
fluctuation in purity that makes it unpredictable and deadly,” according to
Nabarun Dasgupta, PhD, epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill studying opioids. According to law enforcement officers and former
drug dealers interviewed by ABC News, drug dealers often think they can
mitigate the risk for their clients by measuring the fentanyl carefully.</i></span></p>
<p class="ekqk" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: inherit;">Done correctly, lacing illicit drugs with fentanyl often creates a
return stream of customers because fentanyl is considered highly addictive.
This is why fentanyl is often found in drugs like cocaine, counterfeit Xanax,
counterfeit Adderall, or other drugs not classified as opioids “Fentanyl is
good for business if you layer addiction into it,” Dasgupta said. A fraction of
fentanyl could mimic the highs of other opioids, like heroin or prescription
painkillers. Dealers will often use simple binding agents and a small amount of
fentanyl when making counterfeit opioid pills or what they say is heroin,
according to law enforcement.</i></span></p>
<p class="ekqk" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: inherit;">Eric Falkowski, an incarcerated former fentanyl dealer interviewed by
ABC News, claimed he could make over ten times the amount of counterfeit opioid
pills with a kilo of fentanyl. “I felt like I could mitigate some of the
dangerousness by using better manufacturing techniques […] and that worked for
a long time.” He said, adding that the Tennessee overdose outbreak caused by
his counterfeit pills “really came from some inadequate procedures and
equipment."</i></span></p>
<p class="ekqk" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: inherit;">Falkowski was ultimately convicted and sentenced to up to 25 years in
prison in 2018 for intentionally adding fentanyl to counterfeit pills that
resulted in someone's death and over a dozen near-fatal overdoses in Murfreesboro,
Tennessee. Overdose deaths usually lead to investigation by law enforcement,
which is bad for business and can often result in the dealer's arrest. However,
the drug is so profitable that it's worth the risk. Falkowski told ABC he was
able to have "a pretty long run” selling drugs laced with fentanyl before
his pills killed someone.</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Illegal drugs
are a $150 billion “industry” in the U.S., by far the largest “market” in the
world, with <i>Forbes</i> reporting that
much of the money passed around is being laundered through “virtual” money schemes like bitcoin to
avoid detection. A PBS’ <i>Frontline</i> special noted that the economies of many countries
have become dependent on this “trade,” and that</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: inherit;">When the drug money ultimately makes its way
into the foreign economy, it is used to pay the salaries of shippers and
processors, as well as the bribes that supplement the incomes of government
officials on both sides of the border. Whole regions of Mexico, Colombia and
points in between have become dependent on the demand for drugs in the United
States.</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">One of these
countries is Ecuador, which saw its economy collapse during the pandemic, and in
its place, according to <i>Reuters</i>, is “the
growing reach of cocaine trafficking gangs, who have destabilized swathes of
South America.” <span> </span><i>The New York Times</i> notes that </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Gang warfare only began plaguing
Ecuador, a country of 18 million, in recent years.<span class="css-8l6xbc"> </span>Over
the past half-decade, foreign drug traffickers have joined forces with gangs
like Los Choneros to build a powerful drug trafficking industry across the
country, infiltrating the government, extorting businesses and killing
Ecuadoreans who try to take them on.</i> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Among the dead was a presidential candidate
who vowed to remove corrupt government officials in league with the gangs. According to <i>NBC News</i>,
<span>“Ecuador was long an
oasis of peace in the midst of the violence related to organized crime and drug
cartels that ravaged Colombia for so many years.” But that has changed, since “Ecuador
does not have the experience of drug trafficking organizations challenging the
government as Colombia has had, it does not have the military, security
services and resources to deal with the chaos and security threats it is now
facing.” </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>This of course has been happening in Central America for even longer, but with
members of U.S.-bred gangs like MS13 deported to those countries who do not
have the resources to fight them, save with the “help” of the U.S. arming and
funding government security forces who act like gangs themselves.</span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Recent
gang violence in prisons and even in local television stations…</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzQPeal8bqw_ixINWOVd7kGl5w1maifkfD7HgfhZZIw13dOjVQzuxTlhEcbU8MD1nY3uRbX-yuEXoUVopggIw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">...has
led to Ecuador’s current president to announce a state of siege as has also been done in
El Salvador, where the civil and human rights of the innocent are as cynically
regarded as is the “official” government statistics on the number of people
killed by security forces. Still, those who see themselves as most threatened—the
social and business elite—support such actions as long as they are not the ones
targeted. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A ban on the personal possession of guns was lifted in Ecuador for civilian
“protection,” but some suspect that this will only increase violence as more
guns will be “lawfully” available to or sold on the black market to those who are still “unlawful” to own weapons. </span></span></p>
<p class="selectionshareable" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Not
surprisingly, as reported by <i>Ecuador
Times</i>, the “pattern” of other countries in Latin America is being repeated
over and over again: “In recent years, the <b><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"></span></span></b><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">United States has become the main country of
origin</span><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"> where
weapons that enter Ecuador illegally are manufactured, through different
routes, especially from the border with Peru.”</span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Outside
of subsidized U.S. agricultural products from “free trade” agreements, which helped
destroy the livelihoods of millions of Mexican farmers who subsequently tried
to take their expertise north to work on U.S. farms (legally or not), it has
been gangs, money from the sale of illegal drugs and guns that are the apparently
the principle “export” the U.S. sends south of the border. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The next question is why is it a “shock”
that so many human beings have chosen to migrate north thinking that the
U.S. is a “safe” haven for them since the U.S. has "exported" all the violent costs of drug-trafficking to the countries they are escaping from? I don’t see fentanyl
users as the "real" victims, but as people who knowingly put not just their own lives in
danger, but others from far away places they don’t even think about.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Did so-called
“Christian” Mike Johnson and his far-right compatriots talk to any of "those"
people on their recent visit to the border and hear their whines? Of course not; for the far-right they are just "vermin." The total hypocrisy in forcing individuals to “prove”
they have legitimate fears of violence is undercut by the knowledge that such
violence and fear has been reported by every source that bothers to find out,
yet far-right Republicans cannot even see the forest, let alone the trees.<br /></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And
it is only going to get worse. On a YouTube video showing the mayor of Chicago
being “human” compared to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, one comment complained about
the mayor’s stance showing concern for migrants; I replied to this by stating it is all very simple on what to do if you
don’t like to see any more of those "illegals" in your city: stop buying, selling
and using illegal drugs that are causing the violence that is causing migrants
to flee their countries.<span> </span>Of course
nobody “liked” that comment. </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The
U.S. isn’t the only country with anti-immigrant and anti-asylum attitudes, but
it certainly seems more blatant in English-speaking countries. A “stop the
boats” law was recently passed in the UK, “ironic” since both the current prime
minister and the Home Secretary are nonwhites—thus giving the law “legitimacy”
despite the law not being in compliance with international law (as is not U.S.
law). According to CNN in the months before the law passed, </span></span></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: inherit;">The UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) has already
said that the bill, if passed, would be a “clear breach” of the Refugee
Convention and has urged lawmakers to “reconsider the Bill and instead pursue
more humane and practical policy solutions.” Which raises the question:
why is the government pressing ahead with this bill? </i></span></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: inherit;">All major political parties agree that the
small boat crisis needs to be stopped. The new bill, which essentially hands
the government the right to deport anyone landing illegally in the UK, is
supposed to be a deterrent for people who seek to travel illegally to the UK.
That, in theory, should break the people traffickers’ business model. Problem
solved? Not quite. </i></span></p>
<p class="paragraph" data-analytics-observe="off" data-article-gutter="true" data-component-name="paragraph" data-editable="text" data-uri="cms.cnn.com/_components/paragraph/instances/paragraph_BA64FE30-5424-2638-03EE-C5F5C32CF074@published" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: inherit;">Experts say
that this would only work if the people trying to get into Britain this way can
easily access safe, legal routes into the country. In many cases these don’t
exist and even if they did, could lead to them being deported from the UK
anyway. </i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Does
sound “familiar,” doesn’t it? Anyone with a British accent can sell you a bag of foul-smelling doo-doo. U.S. immigration law has been governed by racism
against Hispanic immigrants since 1965, and each successive “reform” law has
made the situation worse. Instead of thinking and having another one of those government "studies" that were so popular in the 1960s, all we have is more whining about "them," just like the Nazis did in regard to Jews. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Hell, if anyone is to blame for the state and future of this country, it is the lazy, whining Gen-Z generation, who besides making crap music--</span></span><span style="font-size: large;">some guy on Quora named Jim says this about what people are listening to today:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span class="q-box"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>It seems no one can do anything
themselves anymore. Pop music today is comprised of a monochordal riff
consisting of a basic scale played on some sort of digital synthesizer, set to
a 4/4 time at 120 bpm (thanks to Steve Chall for the correction.) with the bass
and vocals so hot you can't hear that there's no other music behind it. There
might be a string swell in there somewhere if you're lucky. And if it's not
hip-hop, and it actually has a chord structure, then 9 times out of 10 it'll be
a I-V-vi-IV structure over and over again; whether it's Taylor Swift, One
Republic or Maroon 5. So sad and uncreative. But then again, it IS pop music;
which caters to what the masses want to hear. I blame the masses for putting up
with it. If these crappy songs didn't make millions, they wouldn't exist. The
music industry has been allowed to get lazier due to the public not caring
about what goes into their ears.</i></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And of course liking movies with little of what was once understood to have "artistic merit," and spending little time "enlightening" themselves...</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR8taHECAMdIno5CFuJ9Scgjd7McKLaZnSBzaUHYNsc4j5NouUc69TDPm3EO9s6PKRpRZB9kuOlVCazOqHSo5SFEdD-Y2aO74LmCO0eRsYY-o4TdwnhefymHiB3trPVFly9hfgOi47LXV6TqSczCDCZHUJS79Y7bPlgnbUqMZUodPp6A2G8BBewkYbbxxI/s705/Screenshot%202024-01-10%20153123.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="705" data-original-width="701" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR8taHECAMdIno5CFuJ9Scgjd7McKLaZnSBzaUHYNsc4j5NouUc69TDPm3EO9s6PKRpRZB9kuOlVCazOqHSo5SFEdD-Y2aO74LmCO0eRsYY-o4TdwnhefymHiB3trPVFly9hfgOi47LXV6TqSczCDCZHUJS79Y7bPlgnbUqMZUodPp6A2G8BBewkYbbxxI/s320/Screenshot%202024-01-10%20153123.png" width="318" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">...and polls show they have this amazing inability to distinguish between moral and immoral, and ethical and unethical, when it comes to voting for (or not) for someone like Trump. Migrants on the border who just come here to work and not involve themselves in the politics (as the far-right fears) will not be responsible for turning the country into something that looks like this:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqs-4OXQOsaNtefcWdnuWPAEmt93qVtTOmw3sSv1IqC7xreJRr0QGjNxAF3CPuy5KhIEVe-Qm6aYRy7FPxNfbKEdhqsv9lNg_AJKQDpKRTTAdcLj6cGwYVC0h1nWZhx0PsUBC5vE2sHq2zxe57bdbJk0zgZiNcCA8-tk0ZdmaMv137teP55Gggz6jE8lCm/s4160/IMG_20240104_154513345.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3120" data-original-width="4160" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqs-4OXQOsaNtefcWdnuWPAEmt93qVtTOmw3sSv1IqC7xreJRr0QGjNxAF3CPuy5KhIEVe-Qm6aYRy7FPxNfbKEdhqsv9lNg_AJKQDpKRTTAdcLj6cGwYVC0h1nWZhx0PsUBC5vE2sHq2zxe57bdbJk0zgZiNcCA8-tk0ZdmaMv137teP55Gggz6jE8lCm/s320/IMG_20240104_154513345.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">By the way, this used to be a hotel/apartment in the First Hill district in Seattle that was in use until 2022 when it was deemed a fire hazard, and then this New Year's weekend apparently some squatters set a fire inside of it for "heat."<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></p>
Mark W. Kittellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767307312025397299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201311015829526785.post-40035246036279100352024-01-07T20:20:00.000-08:002024-01-07T20:24:59.134-08:00Packers in the playoffs, but need to play with a little more "urgency" than they did against the Bears<p> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">I listened to the
Packer game on Bears radio, and the announcers might as well have been rooting
for the Packers considering how they dominated the game in every way except the
scoreboard. It was as if Jordan Love and company were just toying with the
Bears all game. Even with the game just 7-6 at halftime it just seemed as if we
were just waiting for the team to just say enough with the “games,” let’s just
put the Bears out of their misery.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Packers’
didn’t punt a single time, and their shortest drive of the game was 31 yards,
and that was only because it was cut short by a Love fumble. Yet despite outgaining
the pitiful Bears—who based on their play the last five weeks was expected to
put up some kind of fight—by 432 to 192, the Packers scored just 17 points,
with the Bears still a touchdown and a two-point conversion away from tying the
game with 9 total points on three field goal. But the Bears just never managed
to keep a drive going as both Justin Fields passing and the running game could
never put together anything like sustained momentum longer than two plays. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Packers were
fortunate that the Bears didn’t make that game-changing play or turnover that
would have meant the difference between victory and defeat (and thus missing
the playoffs), because people would be pointing to that disastrous end of the
first half when the Packers played with seeming little urgency despite running
through the Bears’ defense playing like it was a slice of Swiss cheese. Because
of this the Packers allowed time to run out due to poor clock management after
pushing the ball to the Bears’ 22 without even time to kick a field goal. An
incomprehensible short pass from Love to Wicks with 11 seconds in the half and
no timeouts was simply inexcusable and would have been the difference between
winning and losing against a better team than the Bears.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">In any case, we
would expect the Packers to do something more than put up a lot of yards in the
playoffs, which this win did make happen, beating out the Seahawks and Saints
who also finished with a 9-8 record. Love had his best game completion percentage
wise, 27 of 32 for 316 yards and 2 touchdowns, while Aaron Jones was
freight-training through the Bears’ line for his third straight 100-yard
rushing game. The playoffs, however, are not about statistics but about who has
more points on the board, and 17 won’t cut it against most playoff foes.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Anyways, Love finished
with 4,159 yards passing, better than Brett Favre’s first full season as a
starter, and passed Aaron Rodgers’ yardage numbers with the benefit of an extra
game. Love’s 32 TDs to only 11 INTs also bested both his predecessors in their
first seasons, as well as did Love’s 96.1 passer rating. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Whether he can
sustain such numbers we shall see, but we are thinking that he should, given
the promising core of young receivers he has to play with. It is a question going
forward if Jones and AJ Dillon can remain healthy enough in the coming years,
or if the Packers will have to “rebuild” that part of the offense, which may or
may not put “pressure” on Love to perform, in which we will see what he is
really made of. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But given what
we saw today, admittedly against a weak opponent, Love certainly looks like the
next in line. But as was “surprising” as his improvement over the season was,
the Texans’ rookie starting QB CJ Stroud, the second pick of 2023 draft, actually
had a more impressive year (certainly more so than the top pick, Bryce Young), throwing for 4,108 yards in 15 games, had a 100.8
QB rating, and led his team to a division title.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Next week the
Packers play the Cowboys in a wild card game. The Cowboys of today are not the
Cowboys of the Tom Landry or Jimmy Johnson days, and the Packers have had their
will of the Cowboys at least during the Rodgers’ era. Let’s just say that the
Packers have a “chance.”</span></p>
Mark W. Kittellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767307312025397299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201311015829526785.post-57734274206165183572024-01-02T16:39:00.000-08:002024-01-02T16:41:22.149-08:002024 is here, and so is another election year, too soon for democracy's sake<p> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">2024 is upon us and
way too soon. Time does fly; the next payday can’t come quick enough, and that
means two more weeks of one’s life just passes by that much quicker.<span> </span>With a little over 10 months to go to
election, I suppose a lot of people see this as a “pick your poison” choice if
it is between Trump and Biden. I think the “mental health” issue is
only a dodge for people who think all the problems of the country can be “explained”
by “the border” but don’t want to admit that this is just a catchall for their various paranoid delusions, and somehow just "fixing" the border is going fix "everything" that is wrong with their lives. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">One may recall, or not, that there
were people questioning Ronald Reagan’s mental capacity in the 1984 election,
but during a debate with Walter Mondale he joked about not taking advantage of
his opponent’s “youth and inexperience.” This somehow “reassured” people about
him, and Reagan went on to be re-elected by a landslide; but his “Morning in
America” program was just the beginning of the nightmare descent into the deepest,
darkest of night for this country. Not only was there the Iran-Contra scandal
which Reagan seemed completely oblivious to, but environmental protection
was put into the hands of corporate stooges, tax laws were passed that began the rapid
increase in the distance between the rich and everyone else, and the anti-labor policies beginning with the firing of the air traffic controllers.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">In regard to civil
rights policies, Reagan appointed the only far-right black individual with a
law degree available for a position in his administration: Clarence Thomas, who was at one point put in
charge of the EEOC for 8 years, where he served only the interests of whites
who complained about “discrimination.” His only “judicial” experience before
barely being confirmed as a Supreme Court justice was one belated year on the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which he was completely
unqualified for—save for, in eyes of his benefactors, his far-right views. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Of
course we’ve seen the damage that just one term of Trump has done to the Supreme
Court and the federal judiciary in general—and worse is yet to come even if
Trump isn’t re-elected, because those judges and justices are not going anywhere
anytime soon (hell, Thomas has been doing damage on the Court for seemingly
forever).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">That is the kind
of damage Trump is more capable of doing by him having a mentally unbalanced temperament—and
frankly, much worse—than Biden is capable of by temperament, since unlike those
Trump intends on doing his dirty work for him (like Stephen Miller waiting in the
wings, demonstrating that even people of the Jewish faith can be white
nationalist and racist), the people Biden puts in policy positions are not
inherently evil people and do not wish to cause harm.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">We are told that
many younger voters and minorities are so “concerned” about Biden that they may
not vote for him or anyone at all (save a third-party candidate like, say,
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.), unless they get a sense that things are “improving”—which
is technically a function of what mainstream news channel they are watching. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">It
doesn’t seem to occur to some people that in voting for Trump they are voting for
corruption, immorality and the destruction of democracy in this country; there
are of course problems that need to be solved in this country, but Trump’s
solutions—and unfortunately some of the “alternatives” posing on debate platforms who claim to be speaking
to the same audience—the “solutions” he has in mind can only be “achieved”
by using a sledgehammer or chainsaw to “fix” a leaky pipe. And of course that only makes
the problem much, much worse. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Yet somehow I suspect
that one thing that is behind this “fear” of Biden’s age is the “fear”
that the current vice president, Kamala Harris, would succeed Biden if he
passed away or resigned office due to “health.” She is no raging “leftist,” but
we can imagine that some people tolerate her only as long as she is just a token
presence who had no power to cause mischief—and now she might, if Biden is
re-elected. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">According to <i>fivethirtyeight.com</i>, Harris’ current average negative polling is 57 percent; I mean, why? She hasn’t really done anything that people
notice, except maybe make what some people think is a verbal “gaffe” but really
only something the far-right leaps to object to. Still, it would have been
better if Biden had selected as a running-mate someone who had an “authoritative”
and “credible” presence; after all, Barack Obama chose Biden as his runningmate for that reason.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">I once thought
that RFK Jr. might cause some problems for Biden, but the mainstream media and
the Democratic establishment has mostly ignored him as some kind of quack, particularly
on his anti-vaccine stance. He certainly is trying to appeal to both sides of
the fence…</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXhuKPes6AYXR5QNWs_ZJ35gAjLUPCEDKgq6EF2ZpJki2rgzdbwvTQtiQ3obPW4UzFR-oQoF95XCjN2ZEY9FmcgyjqQ9IBk-nJ70LpvC9rWJvbw74g0Ug6kl3hZGgRlgmSWc1KD-nw-KzkR_xjprIGDxq39C5FPPzA-gDT5hBWtrN-jdbpkY4Xb8JQXYHh/s1812/Screenshot%202024-01-02%20143406.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="628" data-original-width="1812" height="111" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXhuKPes6AYXR5QNWs_ZJ35gAjLUPCEDKgq6EF2ZpJki2rgzdbwvTQtiQ3obPW4UzFR-oQoF95XCjN2ZEY9FmcgyjqQ9IBk-nJ70LpvC9rWJvbw74g0Ug6kl3hZGgRlgmSWc1KD-nw-KzkR_xjprIGDxq39C5FPPzA-gDT5hBWtrN-jdbpkY4Xb8JQXYHh/s320/Screenshot%202024-01-02%20143406.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">…and a Monmouth
poll seems to suggest that those “considering” voting for him come more or less
equally from the Biden and Trump camps, about 1-in-5 total. But his favorability
polling, according to <i>fivethirtyeight</i>,
is all over the map, with one poll showing him at an +18 favorable, while another
shows him at -10 negative. I don’t think he has a shot unless he does “shockingly”
better than expected in early primaries, and the media is forced to make note
of it and to “explain” it to the masses.<br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Of course there
are “alternatives” on the Republican side, if Trump's various legal issues actually sour some of his supporters; at the present time Nikki Haley
seems to be giving Trump the most run for his money. But the controversy over
her leaving out slavery as the cause of the Civil War—and yes anti-CRTers, the
preservation and expansion of slavery was 90 percent of the reason why the
South seceded from the Union—shows just how much white nationalist ideology is
embedded in the Republican Party. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">And like the UK’s current conservative prime
minister Rishi Sunak and the two previous Home Secretaries, Haley (despite her
name) is the child of South Asian immigrants of a higher “caste” and thus their
attacks on immigration are predictably hypocritical, protecting themselves from
scrutiny by joining in the demonizing of other groups in order for them to maintain their "credibility" as "conservatives." The UK's current Home Secretary is black, thus the Tory party is fronting non-whites in that position to disguise a racist immigration agenda.<br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Should Biden just
ride off into the sunset and allow a more “acceptable” alternative to Trump
that many voters would prefer if they had the choice? Unfortunately, Biden has
always been a bit of an eccentric throughout his time in political life, and there
should be no expectation that he would have any more sense that Ruth Bader
Ginsburg to get out before the damage was done. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Yet the “damage”
one could cause is relative, and frankly if anyone has made America “great
again” on the world stage, it is Biden and not Trump, who is just an unpredictable
fumbler who confuses those on the international stage and causes them not to
trust him or this country. While the fear is that Trump will destroy democracy
as we know it, using the instruments of government to create a fascist state with
toadying stooges who have no respect for any law save that which they allows them
to act without regard to any law, with Biden it seems what “troubles” voters on
the “fence” is the fact that other voters may think as they do, meaning that
there are just too many other people who have “questions” about his current “fitness.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But when it
comes down to actually voting, I think a majority of people who are under the impression that Trump—who is only a few years younger than Biden—is mentally more
“capable” than Biden, may become disturbed by the fact there is a lot of evidence out there of Trump slurring his words, forgetting where he is at, and making incomprehensible statements. And we are supposed to
believe that a man like that is less dangerous than Biden, who at least has
some semblance of human decency? What one really must be concerned with are
those pulling the strings behind the scenes, and with Trump those people are
clearly no more or less than Satan’s demon helpers. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">And for Trump
himself, this all a game to him. He is a narcissist and megalomaniac who is
devoted to himself. All those mobs who adore him are fools who follow anything
that moves, even over a cliff. People seem to think Trump will “solve” all
their “problems,” because someone else is to blame for them, and he will exterminate the "vermin." </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Of course they
choose to blame all the wrong people, and thus vote for all the wrong people, like Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Green and Lauren Boebert, who are merely on the Republican front line blaming low
wages and low services not on their own and corporate paymasters’ policies and
greed, but employ code words like “socialist”<span>
</span>to disguise the fact that they really don’t care about, well, you, because they are nutcases who enjoy power because it allows them to act like playground bullies and commit acts of vandalism against democracy.</span></p>
Mark W. Kittellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767307312025397299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201311015829526785.post-11998006985042575522023-12-31T21:04:00.000-08:002024-01-01T07:56:29.094-08:00Packers dominate on both sides of the ball against Vikings, now a win away from the playoffs<p> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Sunday night’s
game was between two teams at 7-8 and still fighting for a playoff spot, the Packers
and the Vikings. The Vikings were working on their fourth starting quarterback,
Jaren Hall, after their third starting quarterback of the past two weeks, Nick Mullens,
threw for over 700 yards but 6 interceptions. Of course we have seen backup
quarterbacks who have looked l<span></span>ike pro
bowlers against the Packer defense, so nothing would surprise me.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The game proceeded
how it should have been expected against a quarterback who had taken only 22 regular
season snaps going into the game. The Vikings offense was mostly horrible in
the first half, giving the Packer offense plenty of opportunities to take
control of the game, which they did. The only thing that prevented a 30-3
halftime lead was an errant throw to a wide open Bo Melton (who came off the
practice squad a few games ago) on fourth down. The Packers outgained the
Vikings 265 to 81 in the first half, settling for a 23-3 lead as the offense
continues to be allowed to open the game with plays downfield, with Love throwing for 180 yards.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Mullens came in
the second half, made a couple throws, and the Vikings scored on a short field
after a muffed point, but otherwise nothing much changed. The Packers added ten
points just to keep in practice for their most lopsided win of the season. Aaron
Jones gained over a 100 yards for a second game in a row, and it is no
coincidence that the Packers had two straight 30+-point games with everything clicking
on offense. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">I have to admit
that the Vikings lost 4 of 5 games by less than a touchdown each and might take
advantage of the Packer defense, but that defense looked impressive, allowing just
211 yards to a season high 470 yards of total offense for the Packers, added to
by a 37-yard pass from Sean Clifford to Melton at the end of the game (just for
“practice”).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">I suppose what
has been most impressive is the previously much maligned offensive line play of
the Packers in this game, allowing no sacks, three quarterback hits and just
one tackle for loss. I pointed out before that I didn’t think that the
offensive line was the “problem,” but that should be obvious now. Adding 177
yards rushing to last week’s 162, the Packers seem to be playing with the
offensive mindset they were expecting to play with entire season. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Jordan Love,
who had been criticized for being inaccurate and failing to have a deep ball,
has proven doubters wrong with vast improvements in both areas. His mechanics and footwork haven't improved, but now people are comparing those "issues" favorably to his predecessors.<br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Still, in the previous three weeks the Packers lost two games, and could have lost a third in a
row last week against a now 2-14 Panthers team. Next week the 8-8 Packers can
clinch the playoffs with a win at home against the Bears after the Seahawks
loss. But this isn’t the same Bears team the Packers blew-out earlier in the
season; the Bears have been playing impressively of late, winning 4 of 5
including a win over the Lions. Justin Fields has been playing better, but not
spectacularly, but the Bears’ defense has been decisive, particularly in
forcing turnovers—31 compared to the Packers forcing just 18 through 16 games. </span></p>
Mark W. Kittellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767307312025397299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201311015829526785.post-852846326760035662023-12-29T22:06:00.000-08:002024-01-04T08:50:13.639-08:00Let's talk about movies to end the year, like Antonio Pietrangeli’s 1965 "lost classic" I Knew Her Well<div><p> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">My last non-football posts of the past two years concerned films about characters who existed outside the "norm"; in 2021 it was <i>Harold
and Maude</i>, about a young man who sees life as pointless until he has an "affair" with
an octogenarian woman who shows him that life is
too short not to live it, and in 2022 it was <i>Nothing Personal</i>, which could be interpreted as an examination of
how ultimately incompatible is the relationship between someone who simply wants to
escape the world after some personal tragedy, and someone who is a loner by nature.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">This time around I’m going to look at a film more grounded in the "norm," about how despite
the desire to be “somebody,” most people have to face the fact that they are to
most people “nobodies.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But before I come to
the film in question we might as well mention <i>Aquaman 2</i>,
which we learn that despite Warner Brothers efforts to conceal the fact, word
got around after the Thursday previews that there was more Amber Heard than
most people were willing to stomach. According to a reviewer in <i>Business Insider</i>, it felt as if the
amount of Heard’s screen time was “contractual,” meaning the filmmakers
couldn’t cut any more of her out of the picture. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">If Heard’s part appears to be
“underwritten,” her typically underwhelming performance merely means that not being
a very good actor (i.e. lacks “chemistry”) and lack of natural star charisma
means she is unable to make something out of what is given her. In any case, it appears that at least for
its first weekend box office, <i>Aquaman 2</i>
won’t do better for the DC “universe” than what <i>The Marvels</i> did for the MCU half.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Of course if you want to put some "joy" into your holiday movie-viewing there is the "musical" version of <i>The</i> <i>Color Purple</i>, told in a time of Jim Crow and when black men were regularly being lynched. But no one need be concerned about this being a "CRT" film; rather it is an absorbed-with-self feminist story where we are supposed to believe all the ugly racist stereotypes about black men while black women are portrayed as "victims" and essentially lead blameless lives in a story authored by a black woman who admits she hates black men so much she concocted a tale of sexual abuse so beyond grotesque that some viewers forget it is fictional. Negative or "positive," stereotypes are still stereotypes.<br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Moving on, I
suppose I was a little surprised to see this showing up on the Google news feed on
my cell phone a couple months ago…</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwrErA4HfTM-N8VMyHd1Lq5D9C4w5jYIbGqe2Q69PxxtHuelnV4DjawetMiWPLE4sdh_UC7nvENx5huKuDhLDL5AHJZ9DD_te8A3JMFDgb_TArfiWUU4exdGEkX5VV1F587vkC9_cyNvLExSiX8DbOTILarxsbyr12PFbOhxTpVgLnhGKcgEjooCn8J7bQ/s1600/Rochefort.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwrErA4HfTM-N8VMyHd1Lq5D9C4w5jYIbGqe2Q69PxxtHuelnV4DjawetMiWPLE4sdh_UC7nvENx5huKuDhLDL5AHJZ9DD_te8A3JMFDgb_TArfiWUU4exdGEkX5VV1F587vkC9_cyNvLExSiX8DbOTILarxsbyr12PFbOhxTpVgLnhGKcgEjooCn8J7bQ/s320/Rochefort.png" width="144" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">…but some
algorithm must have sensed that <i>The Young
Girls of Rochefort</i>—starring real-life sisters Francoise Dorleac and
Catherine Deneuve, with guest appearances by Gene Kelly and Oscar-winner George Chakiris—is
my favorite film musical, a fact I only discovered when I watched it for the
first time six months ago after purchasing Criterion’s Jacques Demy collection.
<i>La La Land</i> (which was
denied that Best Picture Oscar in favor of another “woke” film hardly anyone saw) was supposed to be influenced
by Demy’s films, and I'm always looking to improve my video collection.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">While I wouldn't put it in the same class<i>, La La Land</i> certainly has the “look” of <i>Rochefort</i>, but the “feel” of Demy’s best
known film, <i>The Umbrellas of Cherbourg</i>,<i> </i>which has the bittersweet taste of lost opportunities, at least on the romance side.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> BFI noted that Demy’s films keeps things grounded in everyday reality: </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Yes, his characters are looking for love,
but they are doing so in a world where financial problems, unexpected
pregnancies, unemployment, strikes, loneliness, boredom, jealousy, illness,
crime, war and death exist.</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">I prefer <i>Rochefort</i> because it
follows more closely the typical Hollywood pattern, where the “idealized lover” who may only exist in a person’s fantasies actually does arrive at the last
moment after all hope has seemingly been lost: Solange (Dorleac) discovers that it is Andy
(Kelly), who not only found the sheet music she lost, but was the “foreigner” she encountered by accident on the street and was
smitten with at first sight (as he was of her), but thought was never to see again; but of course by the most fortunate of coincidences they were to meet again at the last moment before they both were to leave town. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The great Michel Legrand music is what makes
this scene work as well as it does (I hope your internet connection is better than mine):<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzURaXJEkhOUJBWlutnpFd88dIDECiKaJP8t4g3AVcPraU00Myy8A1IZBeL8rTTPpYjlmfCM54Oi3BBakyZFw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">It's a shame that Dorleac died in a horrible car wreck at the age of 25, because I preferred her impish personality to that of her sister's often icy screen demeanor; it is too bad more wasn't made of Dorleac's natural ability in comic roles, as seen here with the always watchable Jean-Paul Belmondo in <i>That Man From Rio</i>:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxJyBd08HPgpz2WVq7PKtv07mrn3Hcl_drVnLnBDXTTbG4PE7MU9p0rtNdK9RAaL9yqi7GfXlnBGkOHlNehmw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">I admit that
despite being somewhat of a videophile, just as a I dislike contemporary
popular music, I find most contemporary films are too self-serving and don’t have much truth to say about either society or the world in general, and lack a willingness to
experiment and challenge the audience, something that was a hallmark of
Seventies’ cinema. As writer/director Paul Schrader recently said, the audience
has changed, and what it thinks of as “art” today is not the same as what was
thought of as art years ago, when filmmakers experimented with sight, sound
and narrative to shock, disturb and reveal the sordid nature of reality, while today it is CGI effects and dishonest and alienating
personal political agendas.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">I did purchase
the Blu-ray of <i>Oppenheimer</i> and
thought it was a very good film; but otherwise the self-congratulatory nature
of current product was particularly amusing to me when <i>Screen Rant</i> took pains to remind us that one of the “records” the
perfectly forgettable box office bomb <i>The
Marvels</i> set was the highest box office film by a black female director.
Yeah, you throw $200 million at a purple-skinned Martian who happens to be
visiting to make a CGI-heavy superhero movie and I’m sure people will remind
you that if the film makes just $10 at the box office it will still be a
“record” for a purple-skinned Martian. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Today we have seen an
overload of “superheroes” films that takes us outside the “real world,” but the
original “superheroes” movie didn’t have to leave the realm of “real life”:
Akira Kurosawa’s <i>Seven Samurai</i>, and
neither did its American remake, <i>The
Magnificent Seven. </i>Today the
earthbound “superheroes”—say like the<i>
Expendables</i>—are hard to distinguish from the thugs they are fighting, and
they give little or no thought to the local people most at harms way.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Anyways, the
Criterion Collection resurrected a “lost classic” from 1965 by an
under-appreciated Italian director, Antonio Pietrangeli’s <i>I Knew Her Well</i>, which I mentioned I was considering doing a post
on and will do so now. The title is meant to be ironic, since the main character, Adriana
Astarelli (embodied perfectly by Stefania Sandrelli), is someone as one perceptive character observes i<span style="font-family: inherit;">s </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span>"mercurial and capricious, always needing brief new encounters with anyone at all--just never with herself<i>," </i></span></span><span style="font-size: large;">and the audience isn’t allowed to
know her very well either, only to guess what she is thinking, other than that she wants to be a "somebody." <br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">This film actually has a great deal to say about
society and human existence despite on the surface seemingly saying very little. It has an ending
that seems to come completely out of left field, but if one takes the time to
consider what had transpired during the film’s runtime, it is possible to
understand the psychological state of Adriana that drove her to that
action. <br /><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Without wasting any more time, let’s take a look at this lost classic of Italian new-wave cinema.
One will note that it is episodic and follow no clear narrative or plot line; we just
see Adriana moving on from one experience to the next. We never learn the
circumstance that leads her to one place or another, simply going with the flow wherever the river takes her. She appears to want to becomes a film star and trusting anyone who promises to help her achieve this goal, while her personal life is equally without direction or common sense.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The film opens on a litter-strewn beach clearly out of tourist season...</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigwohixZlJhIHDFQXRN8ajOjw9tfirsf_Zx4krDTO2bZpRnR8u0pR6JO6ACMEao4m2_Hth8_IAQHgA5fgeffWp9KqvzqGgcmhU5QAD-GhmXlgS-2nzpuNiX7H_DdE8AMoDTfsrCc1w6ontzWQH2b_Nm8zn25193CebrUC0rgTgtCh9jgh9k0pLvrkJQoRF/s1920/Screenshot%202023-12-26%20135329.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="972" data-original-width="1920" height="162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigwohixZlJhIHDFQXRN8ajOjw9tfirsf_Zx4krDTO2bZpRnR8u0pR6JO6ACMEao4m2_Hth8_IAQHgA5fgeffWp9KqvzqGgcmhU5QAD-GhmXlgS-2nzpuNiX7H_DdE8AMoDTfsrCc1w6ontzWQH2b_Nm8zn25193CebrUC0rgTgtCh9jgh9k0pLvrkJQoRF/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-26%20135329.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /> </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">...where we find Adriana with blonde-dyed hair giving herself a tan:</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7HkC9ZPOSeFqgstOg2Rww4_AWuRSLsmhmHbneHwljAD-D_bQDy74aJY0wBELNfvZEPHeadS4Hgkuw_BfQ1YIquliT6Sb4geKEc0yJGJNXzmXrqkU6Xq0IN0qFp657y3S0uD4kSUxT0rKt35R8CiuriiUzb9vfXReFkewk-Rx-ujPGmJlgECgsCY5PTpCL/s1713/Screenshot%202023-12-26%20140138.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="919" data-original-width="1713" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7HkC9ZPOSeFqgstOg2Rww4_AWuRSLsmhmHbneHwljAD-D_bQDy74aJY0wBELNfvZEPHeadS4Hgkuw_BfQ1YIquliT6Sb4geKEc0yJGJNXzmXrqkU6Xq0IN0qFp657y3S0uD4kSUxT0rKt35R8CiuriiUzb9vfXReFkewk-Rx-ujPGmJlgECgsCY5PTpCL/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-26%20140138.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">She has a transistor radio nearby, from which we hear popular Italian songs of the time; the music is important to the film, since it speaks to emotions often at odds to what we actually see being played out on screen, or provides us with clues to the future. A news update reminds Adriana of the time, and she rushes to a hair salon where she works; she stops briefly to request an old man to reattach her top:</span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMbd6f4ShJuUXwwEFue06E7XjJvsaa38ib-6kb0FhBfvwxulngBnjmaUu8Qk8wmm6-rn0c-NPhCX7R0mDwiSFyBlc-aS-YSirZoujw76Hkp3PERwhBY8Fz7jjZrU2-IaItDLsrJMeCX6s495TVHBPfckWWIPnrhGnI5Vj5CfGh8vdlwc-xHnCjVHKy1BPV/s1710/Screenshot%202023-12-26%20141425.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="932" data-original-width="1710" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMbd6f4ShJuUXwwEFue06E7XjJvsaa38ib-6kb0FhBfvwxulngBnjmaUu8Qk8wmm6-rn0c-NPhCX7R0mDwiSFyBlc-aS-YSirZoujw76Hkp3PERwhBY8Fz7jjZrU2-IaItDLsrJMeCX6s495TVHBPfckWWIPnrhGnI5Vj5CfGh8vdlwc-xHnCjVHKy1BPV/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-26%20141425.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">He advises her to "make haste slowly." As we shall see, Adriana never takes such advice to heart; it is leap first and then look. At the salon she is serving a customer when she accidentally knocks over a bottle...</span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDDIpyLXdlkCWxNS7v_HDqoaasJSkLcgwASXL-L0yXv_-Vg-2CeNPwAuJO49J9mpIdj5Tc_F3IVeHdhocssOGJhm7IroGVzLptRUXsxvQTAvFt4O0pEGcy0TLYeORibYan0S23AFLQjb0rbOpJ2lM9ygze_jsDbebxJUZxK7YnkpuF1M-2czzRs2vbkGxe/s1722/Screenshot%202023-12-26%20142754.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="892" data-original-width="1722" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDDIpyLXdlkCWxNS7v_HDqoaasJSkLcgwASXL-L0yXv_-Vg-2CeNPwAuJO49J9mpIdj5Tc_F3IVeHdhocssOGJhm7IroGVzLptRUXsxvQTAvFt4O0pEGcy0TLYeORibYan0S23AFLQjb0rbOpJ2lM9ygze_jsDbebxJUZxK7YnkpuF1M-2czzRs2vbkGxe/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-26%20142754.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">...which reminds her of another bottle she dropped while being manhandled by a deliveryman:</span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQsCKAh695FKLEEmtgIoLCWokuCTMt60AMbokHcpajK8b8cC4cBYk40n_010AMKqtKDKK-SyE5YDmpiFg-LB-1HSXFHP87TPhvvFAORlaJsAIShK27VBIt5IhdWnlFt4_zSUcGanC6Tsvt9Tz9xIJ8L7r6702eGRBHxSx0BaNgYhAEUKjJv78ZqIAbk-cQ/s1696/Screenshot%202023-12-26%20143427.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="929" data-original-width="1696" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQsCKAh695FKLEEmtgIoLCWokuCTMt60AMbokHcpajK8b8cC4cBYk40n_010AMKqtKDKK-SyE5YDmpiFg-LB-1HSXFHP87TPhvvFAORlaJsAIShK27VBIt5IhdWnlFt4_zSUcGanC6Tsvt9Tz9xIJ8L7r6702eGRBHxSx0BaNgYhAEUKjJv78ZqIAbk-cQ/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-26%20143427.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Adriana gazes at the camera--and us--while remembering this. Obviously <span style="font-family: inherit;">Pietrangeli wants us take away some meaning from this; perhaps the broken bottle is a metaphor for the way something always gets broken in her life. Next we see her reading from a comic book, with an anti-hero character with demonic and paranormal qualities, in other words a fantasy world which Adriana spends much of her waking life in:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRv-XoaycSvR6R9mXjbzCT9s9D5c8IGLai5LWL11RPGqQGA5tV153TXr6x8HWTujkGPbp6b86Lqyywhyp57s-ZG5PN88nDC1oCN26JGf12gxNOLC_2m7S6kFRrIVhH7wzbCiZwmNjVoEmdr6thmHifvRgJMdOp49zJOiQMPhyphenhyphenY-2g4xpCtlNkNfuWHVCyv/s1721/Screenshot%202023-12-27%20131554.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="907" data-original-width="1721" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRv-XoaycSvR6R9mXjbzCT9s9D5c8IGLai5LWL11RPGqQGA5tV153TXr6x8HWTujkGPbp6b86Lqyywhyp57s-ZG5PN88nDC1oCN26JGf12gxNOLC_2m7S6kFRrIVhH7wzbCiZwmNjVoEmdr6thmHifvRgJMdOp49zJOiQMPhyphenhyphenY-2g4xpCtlNkNfuWHVCyv/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-27%20131554.png" width="320" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The owner of the salon arrives after the business has closed; we realize that Adriana has been waiting for him in order to provide a "service," meaning the one she agreed to for being hired for the job; for Adriana there is nothing particularly bad about this arrangement; she only wishes he would be more "gentle" with her:</span></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2E9Rcl68jEbVsQ0VBMjjmphJchPyUVXcR-K9OWPUJfdpjIDUiqtydNSaGZRIUEt5ErH6fhEdUTMX3Enn9KKAJxQSYMmAgou0mborHkFYc7rLkZMSaTQ_bs8Y7LJjww5RvdShyOuuPvNvBQHCGqTIuqduL3UpN13cXjO2zFA4XWwkdYam9QHlkEdBtCGlO/s1678/Screenshot%202023-12-27%20133115.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="912" data-original-width="1678" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2E9Rcl68jEbVsQ0VBMjjmphJchPyUVXcR-K9OWPUJfdpjIDUiqtydNSaGZRIUEt5ErH6fhEdUTMX3Enn9KKAJxQSYMmAgou0mborHkFYc7rLkZMSaTQ_bs8Y7LJjww5RvdShyOuuPvNvBQHCGqTIuqduL3UpN13cXjO2zFA4XWwkdYam9QHlkEdBtCGlO/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-27%20133115.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The
salon owner doesn't care about her dreams (he flicks the magazine away)
and is only interested in what she can provide in the here and now,
that is what is real. </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But this being her first job, she is willing; but her moods and moral code is subject to change, and she tends to sleep with the wrong people. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This film being a series of "episodes" with no narrative link to them, this first scene sets the tone for what is to follow. Adriana is a dreamer but she is not in control of her dreams. Many people have dreams, but there is a better chance of it coming true if they have talent that sets them apart from other wannabes; Adriana's most apparent talent and selling point is her looks, and that is a dime-a-dozen. </span></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Music is important to the film, and in the salon we see Adriana turning on a radio where we hear a love song by the then popular Italian singer Mina, the "feeling" of which is certainly lacking in the present intercourse, and the music will be typical of the difference between how one wants the world to be, and how it is in reality in this film.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Next we see the then famous Italian actor Vittorio Gassman...</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj17y2PxviUpb5ZgCZ8-unfqQA6AD8iXXXxX0hCW6u0Q7-Pb_C5_zFL9qrP2jrzhr0ibRKjV1ZunPeLL1VQmvrT1bMRl6z8RKnmx2sEdzWO1f2NPJxQHbcxmY_dYdjuoIDazALaJGcsxd2sJ895u0GBS1sUpLvp5cBVTtGt0kj8uXQdJvl_3BzOqfUP-Yu9/s1710/Screenshot%202023-12-27%20140006.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="917" data-original-width="1710" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj17y2PxviUpb5ZgCZ8-unfqQA6AD8iXXXxX0hCW6u0Q7-Pb_C5_zFL9qrP2jrzhr0ibRKjV1ZunPeLL1VQmvrT1bMRl6z8RKnmx2sEdzWO1f2NPJxQHbcxmY_dYdjuoIDazALaJGcsxd2sJ895u0GBS1sUpLvp5cBVTtGt0kj8uXQdJvl_3BzOqfUP-Yu9/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-27%20140006.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">...except that he is being watched by Adriana and her fellow usher in a movie theater; they express their admiration not for his acting talent but for his physical presence ("I like tall men," says Adriana). She mentions she knew of a boy like him and how she had a "crush" on him. Her partner sighs and observes this is a "weekly thing" with her, another movie, and another "boy" she used to know. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The camera pans down the women, and we see Adriana scratching her leg; probably old nylons itchy. </span></span><span style="font-size: large;">Pietrangeli would not be making a p<span style="font-family: inherit;">oint of showing us this </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">unless this is a reference point for something that happens later:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-QgyGOoL6nA9L28FDkqm9hyphenhyphenHopsM4HweAcsF4ddQQA3Uxv9h7LLofTXYxSbW6M11pF68xj0qNqJJoxH0xKUcW35fpp2b9OygwN9Hf5plecbTuFviPuj_aQ7fucMJsEDoAQxRKHyxSx7bpxIiE7cadDRwuYVHxiVFcy0rA9MChxtDO9gkEAziqH5mRf6Zs/s1767/Screenshot%202023-12-27%20141643.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="885" data-original-width="1767" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-QgyGOoL6nA9L28FDkqm9hyphenhyphenHopsM4HweAcsF4ddQQA3Uxv9h7LLofTXYxSbW6M11pF68xj0qNqJJoxH0xKUcW35fpp2b9OygwN9Hf5plecbTuFviPuj_aQ7fucMJsEDoAQxRKHyxSx7bpxIiE7cadDRwuYVHxiVFcy0rA9MChxtDO9gkEAziqH5mRf6Zs/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-27%20141643.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Again, we see another suggestion of the incongruity of expectations and reality. An old man tells Adriana he wants a seat in the back of the theater, but instead behind her back he takes a seat near the front:</span></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2rDpd7gHGTLWJFtJKYN18fAj7ezXH328h80g0Uif9iJjuL0aOl8c4T8JdsrooIIe298iyXV5rzr77UZtt02QaxpmmkOx186_2DT8ohEd3tUiNZTiALzXgigVWiv3iSWXGrlKP975n_y9zPdqmn9ufZdPCoHd_TnBpyMOY6ExG9LWllwcJdPBiL5ROzbGE/s1757/Screenshot%202023-12-27%20142420.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="896" data-original-width="1757" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2rDpd7gHGTLWJFtJKYN18fAj7ezXH328h80g0Uif9iJjuL0aOl8c4T8JdsrooIIe298iyXV5rzr77UZtt02QaxpmmkOx186_2DT8ohEd3tUiNZTiALzXgigVWiv3iSWXGrlKP975n_y9zPdqmn9ufZdPCoHd_TnBpyMOY6ExG9LWllwcJdPBiL5ROzbGE/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-27%20142420.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span>There seems no reason for this rudeness, save to communicate the lack of seriousness that people take Adriana and the way she seems to accept being treated this way. After work she hitches a ride with her current boyfriend and his friend Dario and his current girlfriend (a "foreigner"); apparently Adriana's boyfriend doesn't own a car but is an employee of an armchair business from which with or without permission "borrows" a car used to advertise it.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span>On the way, Adriana says Italian men...</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUBu6l-T44-If5fIarb4yvUTPQtEx-BHFVamiz_1Nv12CJ0eODdHx_11k_QONalYwfRR1ymm7Ywzo4pUkS04cR0RBamEocwCt6hxYQ0wZQZI-EXWCXNw4hYdGCYaYhZP1AsT6X99JqmelSadIMizhlyLYEJP3VRd9AOiQ9wrUH4n6VAmKNjb0ruMeFBBjN/s1741/Screenshot%202023-12-27%20222017.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="882" data-original-width="1741" height="162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUBu6l-T44-If5fIarb4yvUTPQtEx-BHFVamiz_1Nv12CJ0eODdHx_11k_QONalYwfRR1ymm7Ywzo4pUkS04cR0RBamEocwCt6hxYQ0wZQZI-EXWCXNw4hYdGCYaYhZP1AsT6X99JqmelSadIMizhlyLYEJP3VRd9AOiQ9wrUH4n6VAmKNjb0ruMeFBBjN/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-27%20222017.png" width="320" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span><br /></span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span>...are "knuckleheads," since they don't have enough sense not to muse about the physical attributes of former girlfriends in front of the women they are now with. Not getting the attention she wants from her boyfriend, Adriana seeks attention by sitting in the advertising prop on top of the car:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_SxIWrEUcV98H055FmXZaDaUyLIXLUuOmmxlrMpK-WUlmBH0IUSDGrF-q3ZRs2g_u2P8DQl-H5ZN5eo8D4YDJ8Mh-Jg7IxyeNxEkVGr0DeoxSwgMNawOwHfq8skqayk0EE1kUdl24JTGaor16cyKlkadL1eIvt1-rPC8aXsXXY6Yr2spk39XHlvwKkuq1/s1732/Screenshot%202023-12-27%20144757.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="919" data-original-width="1732" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_SxIWrEUcV98H055FmXZaDaUyLIXLUuOmmxlrMpK-WUlmBH0IUSDGrF-q3ZRs2g_u2P8DQl-H5ZN5eo8D4YDJ8Mh-Jg7IxyeNxEkVGr0DeoxSwgMNawOwHfq8skqayk0EE1kUdl24JTGaor16cyKlkadL1eIvt1-rPC8aXsXXY6Yr2spk39XHlvwKkuq1/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-27%20144757.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span>We then encounter them at a deserted "lovers' lane" spot dancing to the radio in the car headlights; perhaps they have no money to go to a club. We hear Mina singing another song, again implying that these couplings are transitory; she tells us that she is still in love with the man she is addressing, but it is all over between them, and she is going back to a previous lover. </span></span><br /></div><div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span>Adriana tells the other woman she is "lucky" to be in Italy, to which her boyfriend responds "aren't we"? It is different, she says, because she is a foreigner. For her, this is a new, different experience, and for Adriana this is all old and she is seeking a change in her life. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span>We also learn that Adriana is overly sensitive, and her companions find amusement in playing practical jokes on her; here she is tricked into lighting an exploding cigarette...<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_zC75r54LYDAXuusz_5qx2PjpW9jPVXnFYB_P5aK58b9__CNmSVQRX74Q4qa8jTewsSTmeaGt4x231aTRV5w36D1DKEAeyXk_wDjqVAt9uoG1sVlrBmlMZc9DE6Or2SyNh76S1V-w4T_jS-LZWFFh4z-jlvZK0RT3FnS-ZFNJLe_57axoWp7phgrt3dn_/s1764/Screenshot%202023-12-27%20205021.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="922" data-original-width="1764" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_zC75r54LYDAXuusz_5qx2PjpW9jPVXnFYB_P5aK58b9__CNmSVQRX74Q4qa8jTewsSTmeaGt4x231aTRV5w36D1DKEAeyXk_wDjqVAt9uoG1sVlrBmlMZc9DE6Or2SyNh76S1V-w4T_jS-LZWFFh4z-jlvZK0RT3FnS-ZFNJLe_57axoWp7phgrt3dn_/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-27%20205021.png" width="320" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /> </span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">...which she finds none too amusing herself. She is not a "city" girl but </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">a provincial, she doesn't understand this behavior, and while hurt by it at the moment, the fact that this kind of humiliation is a common thread of her experience suggests that while such experiences are common, she hasn't reached the point where her life has been a "joke."<br /></span></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span>This episode ends on a tragic note. On their way home the group encounters the scene of a fatal accident; a truck driver hauling horses swerved to miss a bicyclist and still managed to strike and kill a pedestrian:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw1nbQBeQ6MrxAEuzISTClxDaruqTBe4Uxv9xXqZYzjSUvUKDbeBlqEvJnL1H2V_gVsNySg_0uFYm-34zi0FfkZDi-5pzwXjA1ToKthN_dYiA7QrB5OuPUEj5Sfwx3mf5mYlay2fweNov-zsJ5UjCQ7GVE6ZKfv5D0pk1idYIMymaMLZwr-csE0fc8lyK0/s1759/Screenshot%202023-12-27%20210412.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="926" data-original-width="1759" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw1nbQBeQ6MrxAEuzISTClxDaruqTBe4Uxv9xXqZYzjSUvUKDbeBlqEvJnL1H2V_gVsNySg_0uFYm-34zi0FfkZDi-5pzwXjA1ToKthN_dYiA7QrB5OuPUEj5Sfwx3mf5mYlay2fweNov-zsJ5UjCQ7GVE6ZKfv5D0pk1idYIMymaMLZwr-csE0fc8lyK0/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-27%20210412.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span>What is it that we can read from Adriana's expression? She doesn't appear to be overly shocked or emotional by death, saying nothing. We will see this same expression later in the film, with the same emotional detachment in the face of death:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBDA2HcAKDY2EJvTwUB_hdBdVTDwcur8gZk7xL6DptmOp-kQZeO9DgCQnZ6CAX66w4uYOqxRFJZ64p8eD9gGK9AjD_MPxGHZmm9xB-tgNrfuNH0BEKZ8CstAYWtUMG30gCBw68svXpUmhlIPwgityyYzsADRn0MELKbElDEehN_KGb-CuS8Ui6fpcid6oh/s1723/Screenshot%202023-12-27%20211101.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="908" data-original-width="1723" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBDA2HcAKDY2EJvTwUB_hdBdVTDwcur8gZk7xL6DptmOp-kQZeO9DgCQnZ6CAX66w4uYOqxRFJZ64p8eD9gGK9AjD_MPxGHZmm9xB-tgNrfuNH0BEKZ8CstAYWtUMG30gCBw68svXpUmhlIPwgityyYzsADRn0MELKbElDEehN_KGb-CuS8Ui6fpcid6oh/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-27%20211101.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">We don't know what happens to these people after this, and Adriana's boyfriend is never seen again. We are simply transported to the next "episode." Here we find ourselves in what looks like a slum tenement...</span></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCddKJPSmitY7Zn-H14Z7HWYlLk0B3TSg2p3mq6huvxmEO07bhI2rnGJbC2wjbMIOqiJFbqLxFz1ZHRnC2wuCJdh1iaq8xQaIFcke2BxiQ1leTTsYi51dsjShnKpA5fmMMAbxs-0xs-4jOaht457xly-DXckBKgRfOdX-o2MwwJDx30ZT4mFbcIukngdlM/s1703/Screenshot%202023-12-27%20211845.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="934" data-original-width="1703" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCddKJPSmitY7Zn-H14Z7HWYlLk0B3TSg2p3mq6huvxmEO07bhI2rnGJbC2wjbMIOqiJFbqLxFz1ZHRnC2wuCJdh1iaq8xQaIFcke2BxiQ1leTTsYi51dsjShnKpA5fmMMAbxs-0xs-4jOaht457xly-DXckBKgRfOdX-o2MwwJDx30ZT4mFbcIukngdlM/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-27%20211845.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";"><br /></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">...which happens to be where Adriana's new publicist/agent (Cianfanna) has an "office." Here we see them stuck in an elevator, and when they ask the little boy to get help, he just points what may or may not be a real gun at them:</span></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqc_CFjcQZi_sDofbLLR-OFpZUdsIPg1rX155CBtRLO0iVADfQ4JIcu8Or6H6KTZpXE73csY06uZ8ZrcaT9f-pyUR1bhGWTdJcImMopGjyEG8_PqYZ6ZZSdZ7ZGnRmjyrBuKUe5Xt8rUZjhYWXcvZhk05vpVN8n_v815qOUcj612ETL_jS1Q9Oqx91dUGY/s1762/Screenshot%202023-12-27%20212643.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="897" data-original-width="1762" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqc_CFjcQZi_sDofbLLR-OFpZUdsIPg1rX155CBtRLO0iVADfQ4JIcu8Or6H6KTZpXE73csY06uZ8ZrcaT9f-pyUR1bhGWTdJcImMopGjyEG8_PqYZ6ZZSdZ7ZGnRmjyrBuKUe5Xt8rUZjhYWXcvZhk05vpVN8n_v815qOUcj612ETL_jS1Q9Oqx91dUGY/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-27%20212643.png" width="320" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">Once they find their way to the agent's "office," we see the walls covered with "publicity" photos of random young women, and the "secretary," and old man banging away on equally old typewriter whose keys tend to get stuck to each other:</span></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7Bb1iPm9JaeGt1jIVzRrEqUsrXMQW7NRKwc4-9Njs4zulejweXMexVNROFlAOV-OX6qcxb3kdYy_7H9M-fyKJkBXL90PaIUdgOsIraxd1fNKRiBbd1vOad8Q9zAFE_45rvUzR7n1rOORlUKUd5jCPGe0xFFBESuNk2HIPixB6dXgTOarS2GNCweDa0FHK/s1732/Screenshot%202023-12-27%20213003.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="936" data-original-width="1732" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7Bb1iPm9JaeGt1jIVzRrEqUsrXMQW7NRKwc4-9Njs4zulejweXMexVNROFlAOV-OX6qcxb3kdYy_7H9M-fyKJkBXL90PaIUdgOsIraxd1fNKRiBbd1vOad8Q9zAFE_45rvUzR7n1rOORlUKUd5jCPGe0xFFBESuNk2HIPixB6dXgTOarS2GNCweDa0FHK/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-27%20213003.png" width="320" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";"></span></span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">He is typing in Adriana's "resume," all of it made up. When she is told that she speaks English, French and Spanish, she jokingly says that she speaks German too, and seems surprised when he tells the typist to put that in there too:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";"> </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJQR-VNL3DBrY7mgGQSC2VOaPVU2yET6edueHnn_vjHEJM8e_0fl8AmJMgYBh1rRB1OXrQsFtr_ktvqZPC0_5atN8qKcg2Fb9wVB6dmRp50yp2fsBmTILAFovGCv0l2tqqEqwmFLKlG7kqIOT9CYnnTU6ffurrHRT0udmHQ89cdmzHc2RDVm_wgNqEo8Q2/s1731/Screenshot%202023-12-27%20213705.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="898" data-original-width="1731" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJQR-VNL3DBrY7mgGQSC2VOaPVU2yET6edueHnn_vjHEJM8e_0fl8AmJMgYBh1rRB1OXrQsFtr_ktvqZPC0_5atN8qKcg2Fb9wVB6dmRp50yp2fsBmTILAFovGCv0l2tqqEqwmFLKlG7kqIOT9CYnnTU6ffurrHRT0udmHQ89cdmzHc2RDVm_wgNqEo8Q2/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-27%20213705.png" width="320" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">Adriana looks at some photos that the agent has taken of his clients; she notices one that she believes wouldn't be published...</span></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ0YR4RCk09G5kOj71qrSKF9mNbiABbE_KSpYxTelZnax9f2aHcjrLd-xwWMlCNFPD7_6hHpr6-IFEREQ4XkmJ1VtuGFm-m4-BagaKLJIfs_H8V2zWev9mTDd-pR1YGSi0w3XHKxtsKPg0ZUnoFKpyBco1-k0IH1D8Y8XFx9dS4jNpcbNnKwXLzYdjoX0y/s1719/Screenshot%202023-12-27%20214602.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="926" data-original-width="1719" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ0YR4RCk09G5kOj71qrSKF9mNbiABbE_KSpYxTelZnax9f2aHcjrLd-xwWMlCNFPD7_6hHpr6-IFEREQ4XkmJ1VtuGFm-m4-BagaKLJIfs_H8V2zWev9mTDd-pR1YGSi0w3XHKxtsKPg0ZUnoFKpyBco1-k0IH1D8Y8XFx9dS4jNpcbNnKwXLzYdjoX0y/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-27%20214602.png" width="320" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span>...but Cianfanna tells her that isn't the point of the picture; if she puts her phone number on the back of it, she may get a phone call from an "interested" producer.</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span> We then get the suspicion that these guys are not exactly at the top of their profession, as they insist <i>she</i> has to pay for a photo of herself in a magazine; they look more like they are starving for a quick buck to swindle out of a naive newcomer:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWdlPhAide5Hnj3FpeuqPurdsMBNM1o3WoH3-1SsmDzzPDMgtLpmMWvyx99CHT5CJRoRIH5s0wGrPGM8xxfXqCewN3gjsU9LitTXmLMM72txMqlG4Y4H_peGiSxQkIQt6mJvXMxlGhRNTyfz8YHLoXONWtwH0oteQQr-e_cQ6EhTCBJ9N9ijGGBeWGy_9b/s1734/Screenshot%202023-12-27%20215102.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="933" data-original-width="1734" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWdlPhAide5Hnj3FpeuqPurdsMBNM1o3WoH3-1SsmDzzPDMgtLpmMWvyx99CHT5CJRoRIH5s0wGrPGM8xxfXqCewN3gjsU9LitTXmLMM72txMqlG4Y4H_peGiSxQkIQt6mJvXMxlGhRNTyfz8YHLoXONWtwH0oteQQr-e_cQ6EhTCBJ9N9ijGGBeWGy_9b/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-27%20215102.png" width="320" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span>We also discover that this isn't a real "office," as we see the old man after the arrival of his wife shooing Adriana and her agent out of their apartment. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span>Next we see Adriana dancing with--wait, haven't we seen this guy before, the one who told the "foreign" woman he was sure they were going to be "lovers" for longer than one night?<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAGfO1t_gwlSOGR7rLogkLUhrA9q9g2cOsU3GG5USjXCy-7V58nUqEPJ846J_qpb4H3grnhyphenhyphen-y7tmTnc0CxocknYNNRoyV7EFOeugMwaWZV7XJ96KWk8aUnCTiF5H4sLDNU4ooBXYmOSxcLqH0fopu7kjDfyNUi9i9_lyNqNN94YnQBOg5FVZlpl7pUFl_/s1754/Screenshot%202023-12-27%20222410.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="954" data-original-width="1754" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAGfO1t_gwlSOGR7rLogkLUhrA9q9g2cOsU3GG5USjXCy-7V58nUqEPJ846J_qpb4H3grnhyphenhyphen-y7tmTnc0CxocknYNNRoyV7EFOeugMwaWZV7XJ96KWk8aUnCTiF5H4sLDNU4ooBXYmOSxcLqH0fopu7kjDfyNUi9i9_lyNqNN94YnQBOg5FVZlpl7pUFl_/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-27%20222410.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span><br /></span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span>There must be a reason for Dario to show some interest in Adriana. Here he is trying to feel her up in a cafe, but she is self-conscious about doing it front of the waiter...</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPwNCtJiWyLwz0xrJ4TZei2Ui-13GENJOUMwC38e_pm2ReugoKERjvm2Bsa1I8m8erI-haA2tdoQMyoyArzJN8zwYaV0MUAlGHdGz3qKjfjc6Urermnt9zmHxXt8zfdFnp1Pfvt8vv6tgE8lXWXsTfm8T12kdfOkcV7xdJ-5wLoVm0W2b75xtWsvMz03Q7/s1734/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20052222.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="936" data-original-width="1734" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPwNCtJiWyLwz0xrJ4TZei2Ui-13GENJOUMwC38e_pm2ReugoKERjvm2Bsa1I8m8erI-haA2tdoQMyoyArzJN8zwYaV0MUAlGHdGz3qKjfjc6Urermnt9zmHxXt8zfdFnp1Pfvt8vv6tgE8lXWXsTfm8T12kdfOkcV7xdJ-5wLoVm0W2b75xtWsvMz03Q7/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20052222.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /><span> </span></span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>...but he assures her in the city people are used to such behavior in public; he exchanges places with the uncertain waiter to prove it:</span></span></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_iIQhY34ZpELNLlsaLRN1l7b0Tr-_RTrFdc8-6P_TJuZ5AdHkf_xV4kyn6l-rR88cNFfDtsm5kWxru72sZ4YDOGWVS-lXRL8w8C7yVE_KV_rwso_nMFj0iig8VsSMaREm5I02TF6LahAqzjaNuwYfr-nINiSd_YqOwSfM3FOR_GK77Yu1NF42841rnM4O/s1741/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20052434.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1741" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_iIQhY34ZpELNLlsaLRN1l7b0Tr-_RTrFdc8-6P_TJuZ5AdHkf_xV4kyn6l-rR88cNFfDtsm5kWxru72sZ4YDOGWVS-lXRL8w8C7yVE_KV_rwso_nMFj0iig8VsSMaREm5I02TF6LahAqzjaNuwYfr-nINiSd_YqOwSfM3FOR_GK77Yu1NF42841rnM4O/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20052434.png" width="320" /></a></span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span>We can sense that Adriana may not be able to survive in this world she has decided to enter. People know what it takes to get what you want, but being a provincial type. Adriana still doesn't understand that being a "good girl" and protecting her "virtue" will not make people "respect" her, but in fact this brings about the opposite opinion, particularly when it is interpreted as being "lazy" and "difficult." </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span>After skinny-dipping in the ocean in the moonlight, being her idea but still nervous that someone might see her, they go to a hotel, where they watch a fat man's silhouette through the blinds where we see a young woman go down on him, more to Dario's amusement than Adriana's:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuOVKR5fb3OMCs-lUYOGaOEIocE2RCiGYDGSdTi5Wj70usDQHnuIBmJrTjuvsoOc6ACQLu-YjyMfkpTn_SOPb3hlNpgE3KtxQGwVJheIwi-VceAoDckrs3w7YNIFv6STIGejltvQu4Yo_W4QL9YGA9aG5f-W0N4Vs1wWKsFEMNkUbxCKEFUp0Y9XiUeIPI/s1721/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20052531.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="915" data-original-width="1721" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuOVKR5fb3OMCs-lUYOGaOEIocE2RCiGYDGSdTi5Wj70usDQHnuIBmJrTjuvsoOc6ACQLu-YjyMfkpTn_SOPb3hlNpgE3KtxQGwVJheIwi-VceAoDckrs3w7YNIFv6STIGejltvQu4Yo_W4QL9YGA9aG5f-W0N4Vs1wWKsFEMNkUbxCKEFUp0Y9XiUeIPI/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20052531.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The next morning, perhaps not surprisingly, Dario is gone, leaving Adriana to foot the bill. She has no money, so she pawns the bracelet he gave her as a "gift":</span></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJyPQr2TbdLjPSDlNcBXdN1nnRah1DkuxqQ7DMk3wIBGuJ-d-z-bhq4ZHymNM4I3xwiGVZRIgJiarr8-W2mRnQpOmjNpd-gEwoynI4ODhzf6ryjGetk9jL_VcI9-hgi7r9ye_nKiiUpyZpyyfb0boAUsz-01qd4R1EpPmzaN23gA8bIiZbhcKGR8prMg-a/s1705/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20052629.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="928" data-original-width="1705" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJyPQr2TbdLjPSDlNcBXdN1nnRah1DkuxqQ7DMk3wIBGuJ-d-z-bhq4ZHymNM4I3xwiGVZRIgJiarr8-W2mRnQpOmjNpd-gEwoynI4ODhzf6ryjGetk9jL_VcI9-hgi7r9ye_nKiiUpyZpyyfb0boAUsz-01qd4R1EpPmzaN23gA8bIiZbhcKGR8prMg-a/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20052629.png" width="320" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We see that Adriana does on occasion get "acting" jobs, at least for commercials. We see her spend considerable time and expense preparing for one, doing up her hair and wearing an evening dress. When the director calls "action"...</span></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghkEKba9XtDg7mzcmDYzbZXmMA3R1Pm9dBjvnyFe3_WK0MtKq4vSq90-Ws8CvbyQAKRbbhTQK2fobfSx-7KLMLQj7oMOrkjDwdBMl3qexFkZMUwEY1-wdMT3nfhpOYkXCY5FFvL9beLBaOauQmyo6A23fsGxG6NaSKsQ25mrLKcFav5Qf7NrKwc7UKaNkZ/s1674/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20052741.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="924" data-original-width="1674" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghkEKba9XtDg7mzcmDYzbZXmMA3R1Pm9dBjvnyFe3_WK0MtKq4vSq90-Ws8CvbyQAKRbbhTQK2fobfSx-7KLMLQj7oMOrkjDwdBMl3qexFkZMUwEY1-wdMT3nfhpOYkXCY5FFvL9beLBaOauQmyo6A23fsGxG6NaSKsQ25mrLKcFav5Qf7NrKwc7UKaNkZ/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20052741.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">...the curtain tells us that all of this was for nothing, they just wanted to see the boots, not her:</span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM_e-wV-Jv8LM8gyVKh-QU_9oj4ZPnPYmXUaDFk-9p4K8dJjB2z9Ojr0xLm8bNMJi3iajYOqO8IPzRduoq_KaFSo9RblCun6m3ziEPi7zEWRX-6TMLDJU_ROeN2G3wMtCJQQofwKbNxqQeJHFF9bV-Gz2R0GpoRpMd87ev01ZIxME8fCYKsM4KDRM7w1jQ/s1774/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20052932.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="923" data-original-width="1774" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM_e-wV-Jv8LM8gyVKh-QU_9oj4ZPnPYmXUaDFk-9p4K8dJjB2z9Ojr0xLm8bNMJi3iajYOqO8IPzRduoq_KaFSo9RblCun6m3ziEPi7zEWRX-6TMLDJU_ROeN2G3wMtCJQQofwKbNxqQeJHFF9bV-Gz2R0GpoRpMd87ev01ZIxME8fCYKsM4KDRM7w1jQ/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20052932.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Adriana gazes pensively out a window in her apartment. We never see anyone who would be called a close "friend" who she would talk frankly with so that we would know what she is thinking about. We are simply not given the opportunity to "know her well":</span></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk0kUVdt9A5tCvKYxa18eJ9IBpgx7FD8m0KEcXQWXsoLysHIgD2J6NGym0kbhMmYToXOsRjLigeNgir0jUhDQJLD6cPhprp0ekvsLzenSiaSR2e2vNhHsT351iCMbDaMKXycpOUaZ6ECgtHPbsMPfMlCCYHrbNmVwXJ5xfGuMIDXsBFcgUJEcr6AWqHtMW/s1732/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20053143.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="958" data-original-width="1732" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk0kUVdt9A5tCvKYxa18eJ9IBpgx7FD8m0KEcXQWXsoLysHIgD2J6NGym0kbhMmYToXOsRjLigeNgir0jUhDQJLD6cPhprp0ekvsLzenSiaSR2e2vNhHsT351iCMbDaMKXycpOUaZ6ECgtHPbsMPfMlCCYHrbNmVwXJ5xfGuMIDXsBFcgUJEcr6AWqHtMW/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20053143.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">...her pensivity is interrupted by a phone call, from someone she doesn't remember but apparently gave her phone number to while she worked at bowling alley. She agrees to meet him, but forgets to ask him what his name is:</span></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKFpaNo9AenCamxTriBXQaIfEhexUGj-pav6K9xu1Yrtc0CbgwHedXekm6zZDImuj0DQuvhECDThlW8lyOPfwiMm2yRo0xB5cnnd5h0mTWczfu83Uw6r7ToG0O9LZy-jIjR_EasFS-tP7VWDh71vS3tUyjSuLWIpuAVlR6Ycr8a4TVMpyHYEemdUT8BRa_/s1712/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20053540.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="902" data-original-width="1712" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKFpaNo9AenCamxTriBXQaIfEhexUGj-pav6K9xu1Yrtc0CbgwHedXekm6zZDImuj0DQuvhECDThlW8lyOPfwiMm2yRo0xB5cnnd5h0mTWczfu83Uw6r7ToG0O9LZy-jIjR_EasFS-tP7VWDh71vS3tUyjSuLWIpuAVlR6Ycr8a4TVMpyHYEemdUT8BRa_/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20053540.png" width="320" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">We don't know what became of this meeting, or if it had anything to do with her next modeling job. Here she is preparing for it...</span></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzbG3hbqUDmwZtMRTY-9nw7WURSPuOMpOh4-78yBp64GGKKw3Q9iRQ_lxzQ7jvuovdVAfFj_3B80t_-XZF3ROWn8spt4YV8VXQLyWWmMhUKAzUOnIuz1N6wkdkiSRCTmVkaHUBTHPTnd766kElwCp-uz4rNZ2o7gIg8ITfOYcgy14iZ7S7xeXP-0IWl1B5/s1709/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20053646.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="945" data-original-width="1709" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzbG3hbqUDmwZtMRTY-9nw7WURSPuOMpOh4-78yBp64GGKKw3Q9iRQ_lxzQ7jvuovdVAfFj_3B80t_-XZF3ROWn8spt4YV8VXQLyWWmMhUKAzUOnIuz1N6wkdkiSRCTmVkaHUBTHPTnd766kElwCp-uz4rNZ2o7gIg8ITfOYcgy14iZ7S7xeXP-0IWl1B5/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20053646.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">...when she is interrupted by a neighbor who tells her the babysitter is late and asks her to watch the child until she shows up:</span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJbFgohk22FHVAPNzREzwLQ4tFHI1WaCz6WvMdnb6bhJNYqhEi858zkbJJsVBU_63Te85BWkzOOj-B1XGT5e1RbPkVHw9mznWykp5Lg3Gh2-nRFA97FgYLkj7bZlK8rIiCQ3IjbOFg8t1RtRQFsNPno7Gu4zL_BLcDH8FLb0AFOPJI7zHVrwS1qE9SGhTq/s1722/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20053726.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="916" data-original-width="1722" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJbFgohk22FHVAPNzREzwLQ4tFHI1WaCz6WvMdnb6bhJNYqhEi858zkbJJsVBU_63Te85BWkzOOj-B1XGT5e1RbPkVHw9mznWykp5Lg3Gh2-nRFA97FgYLkj7bZlK8rIiCQ3IjbOFg8t1RtRQFsNPno7Gu4zL_BLcDH8FLb0AFOPJI7zHVrwS1qE9SGhTq/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20053726.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Adriana seems only too happy to do so even if it means she may be late for her job; it is an opportunity for meaningful human contact. Next we are at a boxing match, one fighter clearing there to be a punching bag:</span></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiELxXqO15yoPPt9Y501gzXpIB-p_vKp_bnv87DfaXeDTxa-lUg_IRKR7rjkrtjKD6rmJ9fjOxhBl_HGbpFdfKjc90y9kFxYMrgW381_km5FauIFJRrvVz3F4Bb_nuEYjUVXskMCbbT6jcmyWEphok_AMDWPQCyn6OhLqIXJpkJTOKZFbagdUO5fJ2z62Iv/s1701/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20053823.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="925" data-original-width="1701" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiELxXqO15yoPPt9Y501gzXpIB-p_vKp_bnv87DfaXeDTxa-lUg_IRKR7rjkrtjKD6rmJ9fjOxhBl_HGbpFdfKjc90y9kFxYMrgW381_km5FauIFJRrvVz3F4Bb_nuEYjUVXskMCbbT6jcmyWEphok_AMDWPQCyn6OhLqIXJpkJTOKZFbagdUO5fJ2z62Iv/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20053823.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Now we see why Adriana was wearing that balloon on her head, as she models a gown in between fights:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlFhhpWGyYbpactL5syXdOgY8C7_RK231Skl5Ku6xU6XKgJHmdv0hhNVBXPAPnGv9ndlaa6Xupk69oaHjwU1IMI9LTbj1XZv36BAC9Rjb2Yemo6Qg5t7TBeMSpJbWP-W2-3UApxtIo4_WoNBDqkv0jeNECFA0gZbImhnYgHmWPAV14m9k-FbtmFKVCBJDE/s1715/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20053952.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="944" data-original-width="1715" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlFhhpWGyYbpactL5syXdOgY8C7_RK231Skl5Ku6xU6XKgJHmdv0hhNVBXPAPnGv9ndlaa6Xupk69oaHjwU1IMI9LTbj1XZv36BAC9Rjb2Yemo6Qg5t7TBeMSpJbWP-W2-3UApxtIo4_WoNBDqkv0jeNECFA0gZbImhnYgHmWPAV14m9k-FbtmFKVCBJDE/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20053952.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span>Her "agent" is there, annoying and drawing laughter from crowd taking photographs of her in an effort to make her appear to be a "star" they never seen or heard of:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguJzbKhcKvh-B-MrBhtLi3GOA45-BqQy2vBGhjYXJriIjQfjJmZvDg7Lj-JnSVZua-uc9U5Kf_wtyqbuJeOt3tQmv3nOT1PPgl_zhlqh83HEZWjpPxLwEIZ1tpSyUPZZuazXzwpeb4KOD9qYD8sCTOJVOWsodfCCmXm7k_GBss3tiQVuVKOoxg49JHEnT4/s1711/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20054100.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="943" data-original-width="1711" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguJzbKhcKvh-B-MrBhtLi3GOA45-BqQy2vBGhjYXJriIjQfjJmZvDg7Lj-JnSVZua-uc9U5Kf_wtyqbuJeOt3tQmv3nOT1PPgl_zhlqh83HEZWjpPxLwEIZ1tpSyUPZZuazXzwpeb4KOD9qYD8sCTOJVOWsodfCCmXm7k_GBss3tiQVuVKOoxg49JHEnT4/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20054100.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Afterwards she learns that Cianfanna let the rest of the models go to a party leaving without her, apparently hoping that she will spend some time with him for doing all this "work" for her:</span></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLaM8ZymfmBpFsdy5zq_1zvKxd1geAbT8V5c66dDDgsbym_ii2N-G_LOrcATpYd_c6tmew_0D4Ralujw9EE9P6OWz-UscVDPeizUks_ZIqqRTlg3zTtZZ8iCLfDnI9UQugqrYhTq9xi4ZzgQm4_wmw9648pAZPM-34MaBE_z2pQMvfjuy8H5BVtpz6H2hq/s1730/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20054207.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="918" data-original-width="1730" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLaM8ZymfmBpFsdy5zq_1zvKxd1geAbT8V5c66dDDgsbym_ii2N-G_LOrcATpYd_c6tmew_0D4Ralujw9EE9P6OWz-UscVDPeizUks_ZIqqRTlg3zTtZZ8iCLfDnI9UQugqrYhTq9xi4ZzgQm4_wmw9648pAZPM-34MaBE_z2pQMvfjuy8H5BVtpz6H2hq/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20054207.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When she refuses (being a "good girl") he walks back to a car apparently owned by the old man, who is told by the agent can never "score" with any of his "girls."</span></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span>On her way home Adriana encounters the "punching bag," Emilio, who she was rooting for to win the fight. She tells him that he landed a lot of good punches, but he says he only remembers the ones the other fighter landed. Why doesn't he fight a weaker opponent so he can win? Because that is what the other fighter was doing:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCA_Rs0tRsbP4ojlC-aKFBzQ8ilXbWEyTRkyv9ro3tBjwv-UekTinPHkr4bZJzL_2xvxZFbIQmlKNBwPjcvLY6mOU_7OlWcgSJG4Q8o9n_KCymoyWBe4lW3hmgg0jVvjCDS0Kaq9YCq3zPJC9qayc1v53BkDpo6jclvJN-3q6ObLu5YgQjeQi6SLFXSuOB/s1724/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20054353.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="915" data-original-width="1724" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCA_Rs0tRsbP4ojlC-aKFBzQ8ilXbWEyTRkyv9ro3tBjwv-UekTinPHkr4bZJzL_2xvxZFbIQmlKNBwPjcvLY6mOU_7OlWcgSJG4Q8o9n_KCymoyWBe4lW3hmgg0jVvjCDS0Kaq9YCq3zPJC9qayc1v53BkDpo6jclvJN-3q6ObLu5YgQjeQi6SLFXSuOB/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20054353.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We see that Adriana only seems to have meaningful conversations with people with shared experiences, that is to say on the lower position of the social pole. Perhaps to return to her "roots," we next find Adriana back "home" on the family farm. Her father merely says "Hello" as he passes her:</span></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZGEO6LuoAJsyw-3gapZ_tTXJesqqdE_c6q8DwKyuQv7jC14o_Y2UwOHvNSHE0bbLiF6D-4bKvEHu34w3aBNjdCyJEEc6MC34yXYww8nzQ1M9Wuxbbpbo_Xnukr7eMQyzGo7wO4ZWPIpe4zD3USTEkD-7I30RobNWS_dfxb0Q-gSeHZWYv3Udytu6UCfJ7/s1699/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20054518.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="919" data-original-width="1699" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZGEO6LuoAJsyw-3gapZ_tTXJesqqdE_c6q8DwKyuQv7jC14o_Y2UwOHvNSHE0bbLiF6D-4bKvEHu34w3aBNjdCyJEEc6MC34yXYww8nzQ1M9Wuxbbpbo_Xnukr7eMQyzGo7wO4ZWPIpe4zD3USTEkD-7I30RobNWS_dfxb0Q-gSeHZWYv3Udytu6UCfJ7/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20054518.png" width="320" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span>It is not a "happy" reunion, since her mother seems bitter about the disappearance of Adriana's sister, who also grew tired of the farm life; it is implied that she became a nun. <br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span>We don't spend much time there, as the scene quickly changes to an acting class...</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBlvYMfzvoL6XtUPnPvwNxb4u-IGXAsAdj30pX7TtIPUg1H3vuJ1od6BLFl6tSW4ulQabwqgROPPwVVUNQlCqZWcTJhV5NkgT-_ncOfikQqRGvs6AsNQGyD431r4S6VhhC8Hvpoov5PYvRjd9EVYiGt7x9AAkYeP_zEvis39sAQTI6WdvpK1nXo2OOfFwa/s1735/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20054630.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="914" data-original-width="1735" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBlvYMfzvoL6XtUPnPvwNxb4u-IGXAsAdj30pX7TtIPUg1H3vuJ1od6BLFl6tSW4ulQabwqgROPPwVVUNQlCqZWcTJhV5NkgT-_ncOfikQqRGvs6AsNQGyD431r4S6VhhC8Hvpoov5PYvRjd9EVYiGt7x9AAkYeP_zEvis39sAQTI6WdvpK1nXo2OOfFwa/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20054630.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span>...where the acting coach seems to like Adriana more than some of her other pupils, although it can't be for the reason that she "emotes" her lines better. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span>Next we see Adriana with someone we are not sure who she is, but she may be a madam for an "escort" service; she tells Adriana that she's helped lots of country girls like her who waste their "talents"--being young, pretty, have a nice figure and are unmarried. She shouldn't be wasting her time with men she thinks are "wonderful":</span></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8GwK0NpWfE5GsXsdo_X5ywmnlrSuVo_rMkwTFY0eiJTlA_oXlcrvVymIpyLLPmyGt_zixBAkxqKejfrT8iCU77s-pWfoXtztdjWBtsbu2P7s9kEAsjl2BF8LMFeNHoW-wrB5T7h7_KCbFVMEQN3LnWYPWNMdAiA4i3pqV2BsvcZIp9PND8QUoPBB6MRAX/s1711/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20054809.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="937" data-original-width="1711" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8GwK0NpWfE5GsXsdo_X5ywmnlrSuVo_rMkwTFY0eiJTlA_oXlcrvVymIpyLLPmyGt_zixBAkxqKejfrT8iCU77s-pWfoXtztdjWBtsbu2P7s9kEAsjl2BF8LMFeNHoW-wrB5T7h7_KCbFVMEQN3LnWYPWNMdAiA4i3pqV2BsvcZIp9PND8QUoPBB6MRAX/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20054809.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Next we see Adriana in a police detective's office, who tells her they are looking for Dario, who stole that bracelet--and a watch, and a ring and some money from an older but still attractive woman. Adriana doesn't know where he is, she didn't even know his last name. She seems amused and is only surprised he didn't pay the hotel bill with the money he stole:</span></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPzVjFVTm2WsYVtzFBPUaUEqhaGVcZ8h8YrJbJ-lZvIpT-4_Bx8HrppZz_PM12thmSag1AwxRO8x1zcaMm_e5hYEL0L9U5tYgJZGt8hduCZwRP8ZOsY9R1ByZoWqrXh0QFVuOXiqar1IIPaAKcPn2XyCq4C7LN-CsHtISTHZ0fR7Ry3VYUXIyqLzQbND2F/s1723/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20055000.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="936" data-original-width="1723" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPzVjFVTm2WsYVtzFBPUaUEqhaGVcZ8h8YrJbJ-lZvIpT-4_Bx8HrppZz_PM12thmSag1AwxRO8x1zcaMm_e5hYEL0L9U5tYgJZGt8hduCZwRP8ZOsY9R1ByZoWqrXh0QFVuOXiqar1IIPaAKcPn2XyCq4C7LN-CsHtISTHZ0fR7Ry3VYUXIyqLzQbND2F/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20055000.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We wonder if Adriana actually took that job as an "escort," at least on a part time basis, since we next see her in the bedroom of an author and college professor:</span></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkV5ACGVoVkWZb3PlnT_KvOSDLof0tS5tk0An4ytDSTH9EwVVN7tCtKuRqSDqNFMZ4SvARv-GEREOecum1sDbv_ooFXpJe0anlNZY2UM3zD1GNYiX-kzyY4Ro4Nbsg-c2eRIBlNC-I0eiq4gHTRYk9te0YOz25yDHVkRn6bngajItwxzGVpuXV5gm3YAn7/s1729/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20055133.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="932" data-original-width="1729" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkV5ACGVoVkWZb3PlnT_KvOSDLof0tS5tk0An4ytDSTH9EwVVN7tCtKuRqSDqNFMZ4SvARv-GEREOecum1sDbv_ooFXpJe0anlNZY2UM3zD1GNYiX-kzyY4Ro4Nbsg-c2eRIBlNC-I0eiq4gHTRYk9te0YOz25yDHVkRn6bngajItwxzGVpuXV5gm3YAn7/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20055133.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">He's writing a book with a character named Milena. He describes her such: </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span><i>She likes everything. She's always happy. She desires nothing, envies no one, is curious about nothing. You can't surprise her, she doesn't notice the humiliations, thought they happen to her every day. It all rolls off her back like some waterproof material. Zero ambition, no moral code. Not even whore's love of money. Yesterday and tomorrow doesn't exist for her. Even living for today would mean too much planning. So she lives by the moment. Sunbathing, listening to music, and dancing are her sole activities. The rest of the time she is mercurial and capricious, always needing brief new encounters with anyone at all--just never with herself. </i></span><span><i><br /></i></span></span></div><div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span>Adriana wonders if he is talking about her. She is probably right, but the professor only suggests she may be the "wisest of them all" if only because she is self-aware enough by now to recognize this has been the story of her life. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span>Next we see her sitting almost alone by an athletic swimming pool, where there is a man who is contemplating. He says his name is Antonio and points out that it is the name of the patron saint of his hometown. This brings back memories of Adriana's confirmation ceremony...</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK402pCIfPCBIOWtr0kOsdWrS7zyYCVf9dSJEbs6zjqSGmvAoyVuj5FSisGd27W2w8m2s5iynOVnklmtPdRrspBFGU86GCuYKuTdPpS-5habjE73yvU0JU7l4h2h52woghiZh6W8lSAD65ckWqYooRlO1FvyyjP56WMx6JgsPWsNL58zW5vTmgNzpOprIi/s1697/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20055411.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="921" data-original-width="1697" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK402pCIfPCBIOWtr0kOsdWrS7zyYCVf9dSJEbs6zjqSGmvAoyVuj5FSisGd27W2w8m2s5iynOVnklmtPdRrspBFGU86GCuYKuTdPpS-5habjE73yvU0JU7l4h2h52woghiZh6W8lSAD65ckWqYooRlO1FvyyjP56WMx6JgsPWsNL58zW5vTmgNzpOprIi/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20055411.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span>...and from this we can presume that Adriana took religion seriously at one point in her life, thus perhaps explaining why it has taken so long to lose her country girl "virginity." Antonio takes her to a club, but his mind is on something else which he does not speak of, at least not at the moment:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDwKRvDovpi86ngHzOdf1Bn-Sl6S69e-m7MVnyvB1l5nruboH23j7W5DWeyVzPB3vTDMj7iLNfyNGjeb9QE7wHYlC3hACAK7GSB9-va5MWqmPMvyKN-eM2ahjA5ASh6S7Cunxuh166jFTidA-Aj0iICsY5kUZOgRqYFBQXXEfwQ2paL0Oh3d9Jlq3sKoX0/s1738/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20055524.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="920" data-original-width="1738" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDwKRvDovpi86ngHzOdf1Bn-Sl6S69e-m7MVnyvB1l5nruboH23j7W5DWeyVzPB3vTDMj7iLNfyNGjeb9QE7wHYlC3hACAK7GSB9-va5MWqmPMvyKN-eM2ahjA5ASh6S7Cunxuh166jFTidA-Aj0iICsY5kUZOgRqYFBQXXEfwQ2paL0Oh3d9Jlq3sKoX0/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20055524.png" width="320" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span><br /></span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span>Meanwhile, Adriana has another acting job, if only as an extra in a period film. In between shots she goes to a trailer to call Antonio to meet again. An assistant tells her "you have it bad":</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2EtCguEa0uak2LXcqziYXYLTpMgEooZf2BZqwQye1TTqt9cyclfVpAtl4vAW6Msf31fymSEzgErdxw2SQ5j_ZUq9B6cLqz7-8GwKo1eVVqDiHCJ0oX6NVsuKi8Aa9FxaVQRcJhIh1AntWpzekQg8O_Fi6tNZpzRiPFIasjeDlH1de4JzgUATcbBaZCMtr/s1739/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20055638.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="923" data-original-width="1739" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2EtCguEa0uak2LXcqziYXYLTpMgEooZf2BZqwQye1TTqt9cyclfVpAtl4vAW6Msf31fymSEzgErdxw2SQ5j_ZUq9B6cLqz7-8GwKo1eVVqDiHCJ0oX6NVsuKi8Aa9FxaVQRcJhIh1AntWpzekQg8O_Fi6tNZpzRiPFIasjeDlH1de4JzgUATcbBaZCMtr/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20055638.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span> </span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span>He sees the score, but Adriana continues to show that the professor was right about her. Antonio takes Adriana into the sack, and the next morning after their love-making he asks her to do him a favor: to call his lover's home and ask for her, because her parents apparently dislike him and would hang up the phone if he called:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxnhS4D6sQVSF_mUo6_dhmeKJa1Hl2O2R5IdZTG4wj5JGCWCBtJQZPE01Ok-dwDivMv8DQ5FLvLkSV51w1RnnUGFGfFi0wOIqTMy6iZbSJJn_S6cO5lHAIvHhyn-qsTvTLeeQ-_MPw7iRAvJud80-OSqFBJHpaJOVLtqOHR1NJMom7govGkU4m7_ri1hFn/s1751/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20055729.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="924" data-original-width="1751" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxnhS4D6sQVSF_mUo6_dhmeKJa1Hl2O2R5IdZTG4wj5JGCWCBtJQZPE01Ok-dwDivMv8DQ5FLvLkSV51w1RnnUGFGfFi0wOIqTMy6iZbSJJn_S6cO5lHAIvHhyn-qsTvTLeeQ-_MPw7iRAvJud80-OSqFBJHpaJOVLtqOHR1NJMom7govGkU4m7_ri1hFn/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20055729.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">That's the last she sees of him. Back her apartment she encounters the garage attendant, Italo (Franco Nero in an early screen appearance), who Adriana treats as an "inferior":</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqKHZvv4QzhwqbZqncP3SwIt1_2Cj9O45Ly_HObQUef3J_PQjsUtUHtiuwetDiPaZ83h0GY5rNJR6PQILZ6reH_M9qhjtCf9o38HQ3anKRe5-LPBNrND8ltMJBOdT0EXoRXC3H_9tiPbxqqRLzvngUQCWLlargnnFJItKLA1jD85lze312hWlyDNI-PHYl/s1745/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20055858.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="952" data-original-width="1745" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqKHZvv4QzhwqbZqncP3SwIt1_2Cj9O45Ly_HObQUef3J_PQjsUtUHtiuwetDiPaZ83h0GY5rNJR6PQILZ6reH_M9qhjtCf9o38HQ3anKRe5-LPBNrND8ltMJBOdT0EXoRXC3H_9tiPbxqqRLzvngUQCWLlargnnFJItKLA1jD85lze312hWlyDNI-PHYl/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20055858.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Next she is at some fashionable party...</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9VWUr7kXT-1eYCGsOwgvxOvlsGyP1CsGAU2YCt2qglvuhb5hgGdw0UkC0dTdxNW_lcN0gqMOGhJcsQJfTqmLwC6qk4yEy6yNofbnkmBhmqHQpOlm_Hu9q_QYAiiYCC2pML8oX7smbXodNlmkQJwcSo9SBM7MOWJDkVG-7XbMnSnN5pnHYNTXgOo_vGVtZ/s1759/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20091257.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="938" data-original-width="1759" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9VWUr7kXT-1eYCGsOwgvxOvlsGyP1CsGAU2YCt2qglvuhb5hgGdw0UkC0dTdxNW_lcN0gqMOGhJcsQJfTqmLwC6qk4yEy6yNofbnkmBhmqHQpOlm_Hu9q_QYAiiYCC2pML8oX7smbXodNlmkQJwcSo9SBM7MOWJDkVG-7XbMnSnN5pnHYNTXgOo_vGVtZ/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20091257.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> ...where the appearance of a "big star" named Roberto is expected, but he is late. He finally shows up, and Adriana smiles at him, probably not the right thing to do because it puts something in his mind to do with her later:</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVfwddjomgEFzqSYzJzwAiUI134D3iWflpZFHRCopvQygBn2HfLRIszNlARc0G3ZNjhfExHo5NlHUm09IUEXyTI-uvSyILSmTPVhIB9LnOyc6b9ZELJwwCvex_dIbLk8wwpPOx9Jpx8dyOh0atcfGUY5-5CXAb0t8MN-CwlHour650dApiNcYJzw5rJh1v/s1715/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20091831.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="937" data-original-width="1715" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVfwddjomgEFzqSYzJzwAiUI134D3iWflpZFHRCopvQygBn2HfLRIszNlARc0G3ZNjhfExHo5NlHUm09IUEXyTI-uvSyILSmTPVhIB9LnOyc6b9ZELJwwCvex_dIbLk8wwpPOx9Jpx8dyOh0atcfGUY5-5CXAb0t8MN-CwlHour650dApiNcYJzw5rJh1v/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20091831.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The conceited Roberto encounters an aging former film star who he was once his protege named Gigi, who he only gives the time of day to by inquiring what he knows about Adriana:</span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK9p-5Vwm8dwhtYmfEAFpsZRyQpmlIPVKimu6OX3-jaZqlvlZEacNwWWO1OO55vWDAS9tlbg6lDi48b1HckWkBsc5pax_ZHxZIfVdcNUbDUu5YR3FlxfJnxzxVawH4Xlm68ykRGPBHn23OrbEAFW8Ygeltk9ThirDrFdYro53rBszNpgIRUFf7zebgmR23/s1718/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20092042.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="930" data-original-width="1718" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK9p-5Vwm8dwhtYmfEAFpsZRyQpmlIPVKimu6OX3-jaZqlvlZEacNwWWO1OO55vWDAS9tlbg6lDi48b1HckWkBsc5pax_ZHxZIfVdcNUbDUu5YR3FlxfJnxzxVawH4Xlm68ykRGPBHn23OrbEAFW8Ygeltk9ThirDrFdYro53rBszNpgIRUFf7zebgmR23/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20092042.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The host of the party scolds Adriana for not doing what is necessary to get herself "noticed"...</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_Jj3Vv2TMjNX5B5_m5-dzOlKEL8lmOfdHYyMNGWSnUgZktHgaCq4yrRaIkQ1MldbHKz9hRa6JiSH-gspVyL97j9yUGKKHOwVfLDVM8PeYceET0igI9Kj-F2F4Q-7KTHLWrrRW3FBqEcByNSD80p1Q-NUQjDy8NJdshrnzWUMj-6R6isIxo8Q1wzzxX4b_/s1712/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20092200.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="925" data-original-width="1712" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_Jj3Vv2TMjNX5B5_m5-dzOlKEL8lmOfdHYyMNGWSnUgZktHgaCq4yrRaIkQ1MldbHKz9hRa6JiSH-gspVyL97j9yUGKKHOwVfLDVM8PeYceET0igI9Kj-F2F4Q-7KTHLWrrRW3FBqEcByNSD80p1Q-NUQjDy8NJdshrnzWUMj-6R6isIxo8Q1wzzxX4b_/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20092200.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">...although she has probably seen what was expected of Gigi, once a star but now a has-been. Just for "fun" Roberto has Gigi make a fool of himself dancing himself into exhaustion on a table to the amusement of the guests:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZEm2AONruuH20LCOMkWetO-81NQLYXbGQwfw7xXeT25JshEQDg66ZY6nG1f5KVNbnpJAe6I_DtMA7eY9v5Ny33tCaCo-3rl5lgOrClCTHeCUDfOMqvTNcYqxiU2K8tGVjZoIe59Cx1Yy5Zfq8U4WthRfmIYMhrp2jA_mW69TJDAodzlfglKkBiuSbe3RE/s1731/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20092510.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="903" data-original-width="1731" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZEm2AONruuH20LCOMkWetO-81NQLYXbGQwfw7xXeT25JshEQDg66ZY6nG1f5KVNbnpJAe6I_DtMA7eY9v5Ny33tCaCo-3rl5lgOrClCTHeCUDfOMqvTNcYqxiU2K8tGVjZoIe59Cx1Yy5Zfq8U4WthRfmIYMhrp2jA_mW69TJDAodzlfglKkBiuSbe3RE/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20092510.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">"Fame," apparently, is fleeting. But will things be different for Adriana? She apparently has a "date" with a director looking for a new "star." Here she is being given an opportunity for free publicity...</span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio_emo7lMtxigWnr1i5ZIYS-Cm1uGKbh0GJLkJUgKNK_xGkN-h3oMlPlMROcvJAA6gNJCcVzRQrJlFcgz_pCil5F2juMHVcW1hJ0eLKCPR4VHrKaNJhT2GtK-85tkDb2J2XikLe1t4yl9WJGjvwUO6mpWdJMM9M5iIp6Y34tXmu2PIyZjuQ-E6GCDp60N7/s1720/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20093029.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="932" data-original-width="1720" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio_emo7lMtxigWnr1i5ZIYS-Cm1uGKbh0GJLkJUgKNK_xGkN-h3oMlPlMROcvJAA6gNJCcVzRQrJlFcgz_pCil5F2juMHVcW1hJ0eLKCPR4VHrKaNJhT2GtK-85tkDb2J2XikLe1t4yl9WJGjvwUO6mpWdJMM9M5iIp6Y34tXmu2PIyZjuQ-E6GCDp60N7/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20093029.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">...during which the director ask the cameraman to pan down her legs. He then asks her to "act," which she does by putting her arms up:</span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNpk-d_SKakCnI0JC_wwBanQ3Yb3QGV6acbpLKe5spVFXxuLN4semR9gcBcMz8oroMqzq7GVJgjYLDNqOTF5IoXYMwLfcd8pjvZn-EvVz2ETJDqOyz5RmSCW4DYQ9fHDVW6x5o007YsIm1ABMNERQjG72FjA3mWv8eOvT39uDz_9cnumJiuyhPolil8Puz/s1714/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20093136.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="934" data-original-width="1714" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNpk-d_SKakCnI0JC_wwBanQ3Yb3QGV6acbpLKe5spVFXxuLN4semR9gcBcMz8oroMqzq7GVJgjYLDNqOTF5IoXYMwLfcd8pjvZn-EvVz2ETJDqOyz5RmSCW4DYQ9fHDVW6x5o007YsIm1ABMNERQjG72FjA3mWv8eOvT39uDz_9cnumJiuyhPolil8Puz/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20093136.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Meanwhile, Roberto has asked Gigi to go to Adriana and tell her he wants her to go to his home with him for "drinks":</span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRCvwN_SJ7XLHrvJ31uwd7dY4vozlo7mhD792zk5GOnjLTUYae0YZ-_dYyAZAcD5qV0B7P8locDtOh3gBrf9pgEPRYEYc44dd6ikij6QO1ZFZ8bfCy-s1P1-Ggl9ALrsh1QGmaC-KbKrYs8127wWYok7-e64eicCtFqIt3wjIGsnejj0H9xMAD_w75spLS/s1713/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20092551.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="911" data-original-width="1713" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRCvwN_SJ7XLHrvJ31uwd7dY4vozlo7mhD792zk5GOnjLTUYae0YZ-_dYyAZAcD5qV0B7P8locDtOh3gBrf9pgEPRYEYc44dd6ikij6QO1ZFZ8bfCy-s1P1-Ggl9ALrsh1QGmaC-KbKrYs8127wWYok7-e64eicCtFqIt3wjIGsnejj0H9xMAD_w75spLS/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20092551.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">She tells Gigi she will only do so if Roberto asks her himself. Gigi agrees she is right, but tells Roberto she has another "commitment." Gigi was hoping that his old protege would help him find work, but is told he has screwed-up and Roberto won't have anything more to do with him:</span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1-tcxasn7boo-gCcIhSQRsTzmjWRP_zHsh0zY_OHlPs6HQ8iT_qfZa2nFkLvJ4biahU0rmzGwD7oEENqZbLbNXQUvwrqYb-NgsTeH5cqPEQ456YuJIOIdhITwo8-PH-3d9Hp6CGVPYRcTxYpcBnZjWcYXcCMROBbwWpyiyCy4qEdwroIDlR-BLLtpMeNj/s1780/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20092714.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="927" data-original-width="1780" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1-tcxasn7boo-gCcIhSQRsTzmjWRP_zHsh0zY_OHlPs6HQ8iT_qfZa2nFkLvJ4biahU0rmzGwD7oEENqZbLbNXQUvwrqYb-NgsTeH5cqPEQ456YuJIOIdhITwo8-PH-3d9Hp6CGVPYRcTxYpcBnZjWcYXcCMROBbwWpyiyCy4qEdwroIDlR-BLLtpMeNj/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20092714.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Adriana returns to her apartment, where Italo has stayed up until she arrived. He has the cigarettes she wanted, and she notices that he has a cat:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6I2-UOdB_wPkev9mM2rovv8Z4TFOsL-Byes2u0VFEcYQfnlWcONj2rXRCtJiWoDTMNzO1w9eJiFMsjIe3Ktj6SvfAKbZRJKH-TEnVQGSqVOi1TLy89h_UhdtVeTOCqiwNJ86TOMd0YTMR9NXDn4Q8ErS8b5_gHuEMSbW0azTDKRAlyopNe4nAkqfU8w6P/s1718/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20092849.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="887" data-original-width="1718" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6I2-UOdB_wPkev9mM2rovv8Z4TFOsL-Byes2u0VFEcYQfnlWcONj2rXRCtJiWoDTMNzO1w9eJiFMsjIe3Ktj6SvfAKbZRJKH-TEnVQGSqVOi1TLy89h_UhdtVeTOCqiwNJ86TOMd0YTMR9NXDn4Q8ErS8b5_gHuEMSbW0azTDKRAlyopNe4nAkqfU8w6P/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20092849.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">At least he has company. While she strokes the cat Italo puts his hand on her's, and she recoils. Italo admits that he sits there thinking about her all the time...</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPRY9XjgsEf14vkqdb-RBQWuiey5N7E3wpUUuBMEUwq3JFrOlEgMXaGneaqa8bxkKw5Y81E179tVqETr1Twj2bCE2OCQAq6ymDSBTMm5RXbwE1cCQ1ytE_4sX9ptiyc_wH57gC-JSnUD_yOv3CVKDq47WdJR5ewaDDV-swBYmKpZVBrhrJQalDrHMjevg_/s1716/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20202804.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="912" data-original-width="1716" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPRY9XjgsEf14vkqdb-RBQWuiey5N7E3wpUUuBMEUwq3JFrOlEgMXaGneaqa8bxkKw5Y81E179tVqETr1Twj2bCE2OCQAq6ymDSBTMm5RXbwE1cCQ1ytE_4sX9ptiyc_wH57gC-JSnUD_yOv3CVKDq47WdJR5ewaDDV-swBYmKpZVBrhrJQalDrHMjevg_/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20202804.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Italo says he knows that a woman like Adriana wouldn't give a guy like him a second look, but she is flattered by his sincere interest, quite unlike the other men she has known. After parking a car, Italo notices someone in the shadows in a back room. It is Adriana, and we suspect that she might want him too just now:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP3JGNiuNy3V-ZgOff5itlPYdS9DCZLn6GtZPOOOswzh2fHp081H7AGeeQqmghyphenhyphenIyy2dHFjfakYPI7kHVyRwrFhyJNXF7qr9vQueP75-xIR_F6oMGixMYp8eIdxvl3JU_eW4bEE6MtKEQWxTkBIeMUWSLhp8eHezIdk7dEizo0ChwQdcZXFUQbDRWw6aqM/s1736/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20203753.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="926" data-original-width="1736" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP3JGNiuNy3V-ZgOff5itlPYdS9DCZLn6GtZPOOOswzh2fHp081H7AGeeQqmghyphenhyphenIyy2dHFjfakYPI7kHVyRwrFhyJNXF7qr9vQueP75-xIR_F6oMGixMYp8eIdxvl3JU_eW4bEE6MtKEQWxTkBIeMUWSLhp8eHezIdk7dEizo0ChwQdcZXFUQbDRWw6aqM/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20203753.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Back to her job as an theater usher, she watches newsreels with her co-workers. It is announced that there will be a "new face" on the last reel. It is the film made of Adriana at the party. The film has been "edited" to make her look like a joke. She is seen waving her arms repeatedly answering "I don't know" to several questions, and the camera that panned down her leg reveals a hole in her stockings...</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE0mr9re4oUDro9e9xQg6enYVDV7kNNd6m4zTrI_YB4yBLB99MEJmCqubklG8p5_ibsnWd82vXw01oPZabBws8BLuN2Gn7AsvgVX9obkhMGhqp1Mp2lYg_Y-eLedeidLnQpwbFs8ErJDjE7P4wV3DTLGhD8sOlYt_SlrklvZvx0mmJL-YEUxsw8W96otlX/s1698/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20093327.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="912" data-original-width="1698" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE0mr9re4oUDro9e9xQg6enYVDV7kNNd6m4zTrI_YB4yBLB99MEJmCqubklG8p5_ibsnWd82vXw01oPZabBws8BLuN2Gn7AsvgVX9obkhMGhqp1Mp2lYg_Y-eLedeidLnQpwbFs8ErJDjE7P4wV3DTLGhD8sOlYt_SlrklvZvx0mmJL-YEUxsw8W96otlX/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20093327.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">...which prompts laughter from the crowd, and the shame this has caused in palpable on Adriana's face:</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_ihnbhOfgXjtUxohy3tIMjnhyq8ZAP4UeWY91mSgrsE2ssnYUOar-k1suSo0estQez7KLLSXqBVkyxO-m8xvfzNGWcyh2PPrhXgtjLZSQ9b1KkK0t4qlodwGV3dsee30hWVmKHpfjqmoCijFHlOgNy3DLyQ2lFVfrEj6440vKwgXsMKD26A6Qnto9HebT/s1733/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20093413.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="934" data-original-width="1733" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_ihnbhOfgXjtUxohy3tIMjnhyq8ZAP4UeWY91mSgrsE2ssnYUOar-k1suSo0estQez7KLLSXqBVkyxO-m8xvfzNGWcyh2PPrhXgtjLZSQ9b1KkK0t4qlodwGV3dsee30hWVmKHpfjqmoCijFHlOgNy3DLyQ2lFVfrEj6440vKwgXsMKD26A6Qnto9HebT/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20093413.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When the theater lights turn back on, we see Adriana's co-workers laughing at her expense, but she is gone:</span></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm9S-8akKEerVvx8q3sfL_doVezdi3O0YSFooeIunuP59gNMZenbVIHxK3gTMbFPVW71HIHWvKESrj6d1fZ4ZM-sAePTgPy_rZtu2WsYrD0svMKUzHy9mSRMCqRhNrFt9BJ1Gaziaaxk9zmTRwg-v3JhjBZ098HBpt3nJ7GAACu-sJwedmBaH5BQ6ch4nj/s1761/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20093512.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="942" data-original-width="1761" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm9S-8akKEerVvx8q3sfL_doVezdi3O0YSFooeIunuP59gNMZenbVIHxK3gTMbFPVW71HIHWvKESrj6d1fZ4ZM-sAePTgPy_rZtu2WsYrD0svMKUzHy9mSRMCqRhNrFt9BJ1Gaziaaxk9zmTRwg-v3JhjBZ098HBpt3nJ7GAACu-sJwedmBaH5BQ6ch4nj/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20093512.png" width="320" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span> </span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span>She has been humiliated yet again, but she won't fight for herself, let alone depend on her "agent" to look after her interests. How much more can she take? Soon she is back to doing the glamour routine, but this time she allows the eye makeup to smear her face from the tears we hadn't seen her shed despite all:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjscHcDq2216xpS59iYLlIRgCnLbKIlrTYDocKfXPIwVPzcoUUFBZswnbR1TovZ6YTkIrKs78mqnFP8ltJeEwItUEndHtqAkNKjqinhAqrKRVZAdKQ-lrsj9KYqLUhWaAbQlZjDsxHDdEcflG5wRVdKgM_ZfcPU0cIzZ6zs-bqYNQd26AnzM-WjWexqbxWR/s1685/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20093601.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="903" data-original-width="1685" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjscHcDq2216xpS59iYLlIRgCnLbKIlrTYDocKfXPIwVPzcoUUFBZswnbR1TovZ6YTkIrKs78mqnFP8ltJeEwItUEndHtqAkNKjqinhAqrKRVZAdKQ-lrsj9KYqLUhWaAbQlZjDsxHDdEcflG5wRVdKgM_ZfcPU0cIzZ6zs-bqYNQd26AnzM-WjWexqbxWR/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20093601.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">An errand boy of about 10 arrives to make a delivery. Adriana wants to know if he knows how to dance; he doesn't so she shows him how. At first it seems "normal" but then Adriana forgets that he is just a boy and becomes a bit too "tight" with him...</span></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4UL5P6BelJpk3k5H05LQsoFw02Q6k971KCQCShcXXkyaSAHrOpyd4COrqiZzAnEcTKwU9C3IFG_WyNFX75ZBGd3zbxCr0KQLhjsS4okSbls8t5uMWEbqgBeWR33KXfRLePoWhTUZ0u_VEcr1pImzut0Qc9HFOulO-aYZe7P24emcd_hQ4sbI-PF7cO0sF/s1699/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20211725.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="922" data-original-width="1699" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4UL5P6BelJpk3k5H05LQsoFw02Q6k971KCQCShcXXkyaSAHrOpyd4COrqiZzAnEcTKwU9C3IFG_WyNFX75ZBGd3zbxCr0KQLhjsS4okSbls8t5uMWEbqgBeWR33KXfRLePoWhTUZ0u_VEcr1pImzut0Qc9HFOulO-aYZe7P24emcd_hQ4sbI-PF7cO0sF/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20211725.png" width="320" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">...making him a little embarrassed about her intentions and he quickly leaves. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Adriana puts on a blonde wig and goes to another party, where she encounters Dario again, who when asked about his troubles with the law claims that everything has been "cleared-up." They dance together, but he apparently is there with another woman; Adriana points out the woman who looks like a hooker, and Dario gives a quick look that way...</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzQZkwE0h5cywomFH6BKFD9F4TCYhXpIle3dxmUIbvZoIbKOPKiMY_bmaH8C38Aq9mpX2HJXUOptbJVeDvAjXybuZfuQX8ECkUUsT3tWC7dmVctKh614AfoLBbsJQMcA8Q1J5ajrbWE4YMSrmhTG8qOr3zcZ7BRRQauvuL3E-mX-iKIN-sDxq6gb_fhv9j/s1749/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20093836.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="945" data-original-width="1749" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzQZkwE0h5cywomFH6BKFD9F4TCYhXpIle3dxmUIbvZoIbKOPKiMY_bmaH8C38Aq9mpX2HJXUOptbJVeDvAjXybuZfuQX8ECkUUsT3tWC7dmVctKh614AfoLBbsJQMcA8Q1J5ajrbWE4YMSrmhTG8qOr3zcZ7BRRQauvuL3E-mX-iKIN-sDxq6gb_fhv9j/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20093836.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span> </span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span>...and claims not to know the woman, but we know better, and he is soon gone. Adriana finds a new dance partner, a black man (uncredited in the cast list), probably an American musician performing in the country:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUS3UmmUNTCWo4Zur_mjYZO_Dx28LAm6BYiXAV66F6zwcxiDW8OXH9zL_oHriZnPCezz8sJubeS3XhBsMR3iwkvZQQNagMCcPLsaPsdP5ukAOBZZBmhnmcSIUriwUGBSpZy-dlBlrPVr4yOibi7lIAH3GPi05VV01fjt2RIeRdPKVL_x3aOJO2hO7GlJo5/s1728/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20094004.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="910" data-original-width="1728" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUS3UmmUNTCWo4Zur_mjYZO_Dx28LAm6BYiXAV66F6zwcxiDW8OXH9zL_oHriZnPCezz8sJubeS3XhBsMR3iwkvZQQNagMCcPLsaPsdP5ukAOBZZBmhnmcSIUriwUGBSpZy-dlBlrPVr4yOibi7lIAH3GPi05VV01fjt2RIeRdPKVL_x3aOJO2hO7GlJo5/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20094004.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /><span> </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span>And for once Adriana has a rapt audience, albeit of two people:</span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg28pLeXV-WqDhXWT6xVojtNREA03noHrRV4RNFSUVe14S-X2qaMxEtAYZXW_v6sK9pYYdIAxzy1mvfgkDGS849pYjL1Yhs17X09-8_t8BvwMGyjoj8in78mM2KhM506-Ho3cIfagn9v2Md9wq1d3EFxDM6RZ_463n25sk-5KlMpsdpGrm-eLChvc8y4k5k/s1759/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20094120.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="922" data-original-width="1759" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg28pLeXV-WqDhXWT6xVojtNREA03noHrRV4RNFSUVe14S-X2qaMxEtAYZXW_v6sK9pYYdIAxzy1mvfgkDGS849pYjL1Yhs17X09-8_t8BvwMGyjoj8in78mM2KhM506-Ho3cIfagn9v2Md9wq1d3EFxDM6RZ_463n25sk-5KlMpsdpGrm-eLChvc8y4k5k/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20094120.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span> </span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span>Her new partner is different than the other men she has gone out with. He actually wants to show her a good time for its own sake. After dancing he takes her on a drive bouncing down a public staircase...</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbOSEL_Q6_v-5v32OLkoYj6CJwoe5f8guTsPrHSFwS32sgT3mADh092t_AnLrIajfmM4i3Qv1aOXOtg-mjVRoDhlHwHPbHekT3mBNPBg6nBZOBnjbNy0r0MMo37kqzEsOYJS6k6QLjcviFipGZKM0CvDeVmKhDZTHbcl2kX4MGtwXZe7sBmDoQ1Y5SbsD9/s1728/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20094258.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="938" data-original-width="1728" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbOSEL_Q6_v-5v32OLkoYj6CJwoe5f8guTsPrHSFwS32sgT3mADh092t_AnLrIajfmM4i3Qv1aOXOtg-mjVRoDhlHwHPbHekT3mBNPBg6nBZOBnjbNy0r0MMo37kqzEsOYJS6k6QLjcviFipGZKM0CvDeVmKhDZTHbcl2kX4MGtwXZe7sBmDoQ1Y5SbsD9/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20094258.png" width="320" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;">...a kind of roller coaster on the water ride...</span></span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoXo0LQRXzPQQDmRlMcwQvgSruo5y0AvMVPU9Dij2Bxcr2IqDuT2cVssxbYG5xzLafeWhhXLen68IhPbOZ02wFCT6unxBTu26Nu7_jpWYdwXvfk1yBm2q2aQRiS0Av2rC3Skr418pDb-VQDaV8idRletF5GuUE-Q5mrkXoMu9KlEel3-veXSyUCn6kG1D3/s1737/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20094345.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="922" data-original-width="1737" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoXo0LQRXzPQQDmRlMcwQvgSruo5y0AvMVPU9Dij2Bxcr2IqDuT2cVssxbYG5xzLafeWhhXLen68IhPbOZ02wFCT6unxBTu26Nu7_jpWYdwXvfk1yBm2q2aQRiS0Av2rC3Skr418pDb-VQDaV8idRletF5GuUE-Q5mrkXoMu9KlEel3-veXSyUCn6kG1D3/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20094345.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">...then a stop at the pizza parlor...</span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDBWlyQuY5vdgOJlUFo5IOZLzWLKEQNZrm-3VGXbnvTN35uUzTOL_6VAJZiuhhgzecOmem-aGW9r8ofBjMA_JkBD0Xyr4wwwHWnD417oiBwwC37nSRHXxG1SXisfHTI6sEyD3LuRfKPwZNJhorFanIhlPdqTYUd1XKT4ibNiY14ZtFJ5RhU3h-ZODBSe9z/s1719/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20094446.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="927" data-original-width="1719" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDBWlyQuY5vdgOJlUFo5IOZLzWLKEQNZrm-3VGXbnvTN35uUzTOL_6VAJZiuhhgzecOmem-aGW9r8ofBjMA_JkBD0Xyr4wwwHWnD417oiBwwC37nSRHXxG1SXisfHTI6sEyD3LuRfKPwZNJhorFanIhlPdqTYUd1XKT4ibNiY14ZtFJ5RhU3h-ZODBSe9z/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20094446.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">...and finally watching the birds in an aviary awaken at dawn:</span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6UmjEZkdQAuogqGqg_MIEel5NsKkQWp2NYy8OFoOFM8W85Mee3tSiybwAYLYGWDLcfBpMyr9FOtAS4b6m7dfWziozGxkX1snVQxcz-UCDRlk82gVSPlCVxx7XXmrBfe7p0IiW_TC7wa36xLd_BHVOvAoG2NHrxZD7Ero0GSi4RcmSyFmC5DL68EtjMQDz/s1709/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20214324.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="950" data-original-width="1709" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6UmjEZkdQAuogqGqg_MIEel5NsKkQWp2NYy8OFoOFM8W85Mee3tSiybwAYLYGWDLcfBpMyr9FOtAS4b6m7dfWziozGxkX1snVQxcz-UCDRlk82gVSPlCVxx7XXmrBfe7p0IiW_TC7wa36xLd_BHVOvAoG2NHrxZD7Ero0GSi4RcmSyFmC5DL68EtjMQDz/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20214324.png" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Adriana seems to have had more fun from this chance encounter that she has had on all the other "dates" she's been on combined, but because of the communication gap (he can't speak Italian, she can't speak English), this is also a "relationship" that cannot be anything but a one-night stand short of having an interpreter tag along. But one thing it has done is to expose the lack of relationships that made her feel special and not an object of amusement. It could also be said that Adriana might have been happier if she had simply sought a compatible partner in life.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span>Adriana is now driving home in her own car after her long night out...</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEh2pS3FvTPop_h6C-Ai5Va5qGy8MvFFXB5X4IjWP99uuX4Z3sWftzenmoGOaVeuWjOptvmGK8YQM7b-FiKKCoPovwS4GLmIhF4-86FAWCKXdSqR6N6eTWwGwPNQrDN5FfLx-8IQ2R45LrVfjqlGA78GeFKkE1waBKYK7DPklwh7zNMBtxo6CpDLb0MO7p/s1824/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20094738.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1824" height="159" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEh2pS3FvTPop_h6C-Ai5Va5qGy8MvFFXB5X4IjWP99uuX4Z3sWftzenmoGOaVeuWjOptvmGK8YQM7b-FiKKCoPovwS4GLmIhF4-86FAWCKXdSqR6N6eTWwGwPNQrDN5FfLx-8IQ2R45LrVfjqlGA78GeFKkE1waBKYK7DPklwh7zNMBtxo6CpDLb0MO7p/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20094738.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">...and perhaps she has been thinking about her life because there is no trace of the pleasure she had just a short while before. She ignores Italo without a word...</span></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHZhRQIhRHigZqYD-W4f3bGGapnk_G88z4faoMrew6O1hGTSfZVSpIJ1L2OcORZ5fMHTxZa6Uxl5RJWrpP91_UxuEUy_aFb1ivkCAeXVqTBF2cLEEETuMT-jT9f-2QLGQMXo6t9SWHTFxr0zWws6WwascpAK8rSehsppm68JkF4GgHIyN3ddMC1zfOgEml/s1700/Screenshot%202023-12-28%2009484.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="805" data-original-width="1700" height="152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHZhRQIhRHigZqYD-W4f3bGGapnk_G88z4faoMrew6O1hGTSfZVSpIJ1L2OcORZ5fMHTxZa6Uxl5RJWrpP91_UxuEUy_aFb1ivkCAeXVqTBF2cLEEETuMT-jT9f-2QLGQMXo6t9SWHTFxr0zWws6WwascpAK8rSehsppm68JkF4GgHIyN3ddMC1zfOgEml/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%2009484.png" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">...kicks her record player one more time to make it work, takes off her blonde wig...</span></p>
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir0TO7NvW06-lERiV988Fjb7XFHiAoivCoCwLm-6onSm_JL3FA2GHPg2wcEeeIE7OhOSbEtDqJM51DeHGXOg2OBJsGINPA2c1WJXMWQTdR8b1c-2TwtgDqSmTmYiaErnm4Er0isw-NAlUI2zyi9dfQUn3-dVVCBASTOEWmC7iXBEbjEjNE2cINxXpmvyrE/s1709/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20095148.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="941" data-original-width="1709" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir0TO7NvW06-lERiV988Fjb7XFHiAoivCoCwLm-6onSm_JL3FA2GHPg2wcEeeIE7OhOSbEtDqJM51DeHGXOg2OBJsGINPA2c1WJXMWQTdR8b1c-2TwtgDqSmTmYiaErnm4Er0isw-NAlUI2zyi9dfQUn3-dVVCBASTOEWmC7iXBEbjEjNE2cINxXpmvyrE/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20095148.png" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">...gazes out the window, this time without wistful anticipation, but a realization that her dreams of being famous could only come at too high a cost for someone of middling talent such as herself:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjnCZfIsoYREgA-kq3nELoBIpq0seUvjjhvbd5DUN_pL47sZZgJcLHru-zLCzcfxGO_7RwBiOAsc7klIpIqwWvM1lYGlmODbK7HecBXb4Y3t5tiXpuK_53bZE6s-nWX4zIP1_-4O8PQ1E8Q-CcfVwfMqWrdvoc6da6yHO5SO2K3rT03sX0E1D9Yd6xSCNh/s1698/Screenshot%202023-12-28%2009524.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="934" data-original-width="1698" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjnCZfIsoYREgA-kq3nELoBIpq0seUvjjhvbd5DUN_pL47sZZgJcLHru-zLCzcfxGO_7RwBiOAsc7klIpIqwWvM1lYGlmODbK7HecBXb4Y3t5tiXpuK_53bZE6s-nWX4zIP1_-4O8PQ1E8Q-CcfVwfMqWrdvoc6da6yHO5SO2K3rT03sX0E1D9Yd6xSCNh/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%2009524.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">We have seen this expression earlier in the film, but what comes next is still unexpected. The camera pans toward the balcony as if it is following Adriana's movements and then we see a rush toward the street...</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimJDnnPXdAv8m3AkB0afLsPrTtnYPbq401Uua4_Ps_F5NjKdiEZdnhdovISCvIM-Y3gVSK0BPhffISu1aacGQDIjeUxwAGh7pZMx48JkURfrgglH4Q6aAdKFkTci6YfykJQ78A8B0YO-s1Hu72dVJTs1ixLsBV4-ojjpb_BikFuk30Wr5nmxOsi_1h2kU2/s1736/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20095330.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="927" data-original-width="1736" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimJDnnPXdAv8m3AkB0afLsPrTtnYPbq401Uua4_Ps_F5NjKdiEZdnhdovISCvIM-Y3gVSK0BPhffISu1aacGQDIjeUxwAGh7pZMx48JkURfrgglH4Q6aAdKFkTci6YfykJQ78A8B0YO-s1Hu72dVJTs1ixLsBV4-ojjpb_BikFuk30Wr5nmxOsi_1h2kU2/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20095330.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">...and then back to the apartment; we don't see Adriana, and it is clear what she has done:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIpCvC1R9d082FpIJYqO2_t8bIy0iaj_qUHHRfmzkOPoO0HCOb7Gu1nJ5Ni3awc1x8bX8oAjE1bVYA53hpMa6-lYRsfW4_BcMiSS5YX5pXXSzMqjcuO3AfgGN_D9QWFqg7KDi2oAVgNBw1FzJVB9FHSIQJPvznoXAw2IwwZFUZIJxqHVC9dRaitN2ceOQo/s1724/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20095423.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="920" data-original-width="1724" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIpCvC1R9d082FpIJYqO2_t8bIy0iaj_qUHHRfmzkOPoO0HCOb7Gu1nJ5Ni3awc1x8bX8oAjE1bVYA53hpMa6-lYRsfW4_BcMiSS5YX5pXXSzMqjcuO3AfgGN_D9QWFqg7KDi2oAVgNBw1FzJVB9FHSIQJPvznoXAw2IwwZFUZIJxqHVC9dRaitN2ceOQo/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20095423.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /> </span><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The
ending of this film might seem “shocking” and “unexpected,” but like that in
Francois Truffaut’s <i>Jules and Jim</i> and
<i>The Woman Next Door</i> where a woman
commits murder/suicide for “love,” there is a logic to it if we consider what
has just transpired. Adriana has just had an encounter with a man unlike all
the rest of the people she has known, besides his skin color. Her previous
“lover” who she reunited with immediately abandoned her was like all the rest, because those “relationship”
were only meant to be transient by the men, and there was no real interest in "knowing" her. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The unnamed black man wasn’t there to use her, but she was “special”
enough for him to show her a good time because it pleased him to see that it pleased her.
This was the first time that Adriana truly appeared to be enjoying life for its
own sake. But given the communication gap at the very least, it was also a
one-time encounter, and couldn’t last. Worse, it exposed just how empty the seeking of "fame"
was with those she could “communicate” with.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Adriana,
although she wasn’t living in a fine house or villa, was living in a comfortable flat and even had enough money to afford her own car, so she was doing something to earn a decent living, even if it depended on her youthful good looks. But the fact that she was wearing a blonde wig showed that she still had
to be something other than who she was; it was the “look” that was important,
not the person.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Still, she seemed to be a person
who was helpless without the “assistance” of others; she didn't have what it took to get to the next "level." That is not to say she didn't have opportunities to do a quid pro quo to get better jobs, but for some reason she chose to allow her "moral scruples" to intervene in dealing with those who were actually in a position
to do something for her. Italo was perhaps the only person who cared if she was alive or dead; but then again, what use was he to her, at least in her mind.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">But in a general commentary on society, Adriana—like<span> </span>most people—had a need to
be “special,” above the common run. Her visit to her low-class farmer parents
suggested why she would have at least the “ambition” to be escape that life,
but while she was an attractive young woman, she was a dime-a-dozen and
apparently too naïve and not particularly talented enough to take the next step
up without doing what was “necessary” for the times; Joan Crawford, for one,
was not shy or self-conscious about admitting that for getting roles—especially
in her early career—the “casting couch was better than the floor.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">However,
it would be too easy to say that Adriana wasn’t willing to do the “work”; after all, she did get some "jobs," if only the kind where she wasn't what was being "sold." She
made some bad choices, was inattentive to “detail,” and didn’t have an “agent”
willing to look after her best interests. <br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">But then again, the vast
majority of us are just “nobodies” who are “superstars” in our own minds but
not in that of others. Adriana's follies were the ones that most “normal” people
have. Eventually most people accept their lot because life is short anyways and
why waste the time you have left mulling over the what-could-have-beens.
In the end, try as she may, Adriana, it seems, wanted more than this life could give her, and what there was, it wasn’t
worth living for. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">We have gone through a film where we don't know the main character very well, because she doesn't tell us what she is thinking, and the people she is with don't seem to care anyways. She is a complete stranger to us, like ships passing in the night. Not knowing her thoughts makes us not understand why she killed herself; only in retrospect does it make "sense." </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 383.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">And
for those who still don’t want to believe the Seventies was the best decade for
popular music (and film), here is a song by Hot Chocolate, “Emma,” that was a hit in 1975,
that might at least give us an idea of what was going on inside Adriana’s mind:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><i><span>We were together since we were five<br />
She was so pretty<br />
Emma was a star in everyone's eyes<br />
And when she said she'd be a movie queen<br />
Nobody laughed<br />
A face like an angel<br />
She could be anything</span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><i><span>Emmaline<br />
Emma, Emmaline<br />
I'm gonna write your name high on that silver screen<br />
Emmaline<br />
Emma, Emmaline<br />
I'm gonna make you the biggest star this world has ever seen</span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><i><span>At seventeen we were wed<br />
I'd work day and night <br />
To earn our daily bread<br />
And every day Emma would go out</span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><i><span>Searching for that play<br />
That never, ever came her way<br />
You know sometimes she'd come home<br />
So depressed</span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><i><span>I'd hear her crying in the back room<br />
Feel so distressed<br />
And I'd remember back when she was five<br />
To the words that used to make<br />
Emmaline come alive</span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><i><span>It was :<br />
"Emmaline,<br />
Emma, Emmaline,<br />
I'm gonna write your name high on that silver screen.<br />
Emmaline,<br />
Emma, Emmaline<br />
I'm gonna make you the biggest star this world has ever seen."</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span>It was a cold and dark December night<br />
When I opened up the bedroom door<br />
To find her lying still and cold<br />
Upon the bed<br />
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"Darling I love you,<br />
But I just can't keep on living on dreams no more.<br />
I tried so very hard not to leave you alone.<br />
I just can't keep on trying no more."</span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><i><span> </span></i></span></p>
Mark W. Kittellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767307312025397299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201311015829526785.post-8792603788063350092023-12-24T17:18:00.000-08:002023-12-24T17:58:10.191-08:00Packers escape with undeserved win against the NFL’s worst team<p> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Packers were
on the road against the team with the league’s worst record, the Panthers, who
barely won its second game of the season in an offensive snore-fest against the
Falcons last week, 9-7. The Panthers defense is in fact one of best in total
yards allowed, but near the bottom in points allowed, which may be explained by
its offensive ineptitude, 30<sup>th</sup> in yards gained, and 29<sup>th</sup>
in points scored (14.7). </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Panthers’
quarterback, Bryce Young, was the number one overall pick in the 2023 draft,
but entered the game near the bottom in QB rating, averaging just 181 YPG and 9
TD passes in 13 games started; he only threw for as many as 200 yards in three
of those games. Frank Reich was supposed to “nurture” Young into an NFL
quarterback with the help of QB coach Josh McCown, and they were gone after 11
games having failed in this mission. But could the Packers defense, which
managed to make the likes of Tommy DeVito and Baker Mayfield look like pro-bowlers,
do what they were supposed to do?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">This is
Christmas, so I am not going to belabor what happened in this game, but the
Packer defense very nearly handed the Panthers an early gift and Packer fans a lump of coal for Christmas. Young had his first 300-yard game of his NFL
career, the Panthers doubled their season point average, it was only a pass to
Romeo Doubs on third down after the Panthers tied the game at 30 that put the Packers
in position to take back the lead on an Anders Carlson field goal. Yet with
just 19 seconds left and no timeouts, Young managed to complete two pass to the
Packer 31, but time ran out before the ball could be spiked to attempt a game-tying
field goal and OT; frankly it was a damn close call. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">OK, it wasn't all
bad news; on the “positive” side, Aaron Jones gained 127 yards on the ground, the
best game by a Packer running back this year on a team that was supposed to be
earning its bread on the ground. And the Packers did manage to score more
points than the team that had been averaging less than 15 points a game. In 1997 on their way to a second-straight Super Bowl, they lost to an 0-10 Colts team, so these things happen.<br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">So the Packers
escaped with a 33-30 win against the team with the worst record in the league. If
the Packers had lost this game it would have been a crushing blow to its season. After
this near debacle the next games against the Vikings on the road and against
the Bears who have won 4 of 6 are no “gimmes.” Winnable games for sure, you
betcha. But I’m not putting any money on it.</span></p>
Mark W. Kittellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767307312025397299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201311015829526785.post-64998474807099351922023-12-19T15:49:00.000-08:002023-12-19T16:50:47.081-08:00Why not vote for "Hitler" as president since words "don't matter"?<p> <!--[if !mso]>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="style-scope">Too often with these YouTube “influencers”—I won’t mention
any names, but there is one I feel really sad about going down this road—are
allowing themselves to be influenced by the language that they’ve heard used by
others without thinking about where it came from. And then you have Sen. Lindsay
Graham told <i>Meet The Press</i> that </span>"We're
talking about language. I could care less what language people use as long as
we get it right." The headlines should read "Sen. Graham suggests that he would have voted for Hitler as president."<br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">What is it that Graham thinks we should get "right"? Certainly not preserving the form of government the founding fathers intended.
There are those who fear that democracy won’t survive a second Trump term.
Trump says he will be a “dictator for a day” if re-elected, and people
shouldn’t blow that off, because he can do a lot of destruction granting the
far-right’s wish list in one day. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But the real damage is that the country will
be irreparably impaired, with one group of voters accepting single-party
authoritarian rule, and<span> </span>another group of
voters radicalized into believing that they are on a sacred mission to preserve
democracy, and those in the middle given the unenviable position of being the
ones to blame for their choice between authoritarianism and democracy.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">This country is
at a crossroads. In 2016 many thought that Trump would “moderate” himself given
that he really wasn’t the best “fit” for the highest office in the land; he was
always a self-promoter, and winning the election was a grand PR stunt. But Trump was
no politician, and he ran his own business like a dictator. He is a person guided
by megalomania, his “gut” and his prejudices. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">And Trump clearly doesn’t care if
his words signal the end of democracy as we know it, because he sees the cheering mobs at his
rallies have no clue about the danger words present, and they don't want to hear that CRT stuff that makes them feel "bad" enough to reflect on the fact that they are no different than the Germans who, weary of the Weimar
Republic that failed to "solve" the Great Depression, chose to be ruled by the Nazis who promised them "miracles" by removing the "poison in the blood." <span class="style-scope"></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="style-scope"><i>Newsweek</i> recently did a “fact check” on the comparison of
Trump’s words with Hitler’s; its conclusion was very nearly that the comparison
was accurate:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="style-scope"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMUxzSGfTQqNgOVR6AdARAPVrrugPv430kZwda1UjkjofOCVF0RvYHwnUHUNhCh77YWGZ2R4IU-Lqi3pNEL5LOqhOrObGw3czbuwdQ-2cIe6YAm-5WoPDWI4Ft1pzJnApvoSdtfWCC9DYKqXjgo70-KoYolRo6hLstE3KGqMgj5eWLkwUxfqnNaffSHGB8/s380/hitler%20and%20trump.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="167" data-original-width="380" height="141" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMUxzSGfTQqNgOVR6AdARAPVrrugPv430kZwda1UjkjofOCVF0RvYHwnUHUNhCh77YWGZ2R4IU-Lqi3pNEL5LOqhOrObGw3czbuwdQ-2cIe6YAm-5WoPDWI4Ft1pzJnApvoSdtfWCC9DYKqXjgo70-KoYolRo6hLstE3KGqMgj5eWLkwUxfqnNaffSHGB8/s320/hitler%20and%20trump.webp" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="style-scope"><span> </span>Here are some recent
comments by Trump:</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="style-scope"><i>They let — I think the
real number is 15, 16 million people into our country. When they do that, we
got a lot of work to do. They’re poisoning the blood of our country. That’s
what they’ve done. They poison mental institutions and prisons all over the
world, not just in South America, not just to three or four countries that we
think about, but all over the world. They’re coming into our country from
Africa, from Asia, all over the world. </i></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="style-scope"><i>In honor of our great
Veterans on Veteran's Day, we pledge to you that we will root out the
Communists, Marxists, Fascists, and Radical Left Thugs that live like vermin
within the confines of our Country, lie, steal, and cheat on Elections, and
will do anything possible, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America,
and the American Dream.The threat from outside forces is far less sinister,
dangerous, and grave, than the threat from within. Despite the hatred and anger
of the Radical Left Lunatics who want to destroy our Country, we will MAKE
AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. </i></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="style-scope"><i>Nobody has ever seen
anything like we're witnessing right now, it is a very sad thing for our
country. It's poisoning the blood of our country, it's so bad and people are
coming in with disease, people are coming in with every possible thing that you
can have. </i></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="style-scope"><i>I think you could go to
the, uh, you could go to a banana republic, and pick the worst one, and you're
not going to see what we're witnessing now. No control whatsoever, nobody has
any idea where these people are coming from, and we know they come from prisons,
we know they come from mental institutions, insane asylums, we know they're
terrorists. Nobody has ever seen anything like we're witnessing right now, it
is a very sad thing for our country. It's poisoning the blood of our country,
it's so bad and people are coming in with disease, people are coming in with
every possible thing that you can have.</i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="style-scope">Of course like Hitler, Trump is no fan of a free press, such as this response to suggestions that Trump's words parroted Hitler's:<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]--><span><span>"Trump spokesman
Steven Cheung told <i>Newsweek </i>earlier this week: 'Those who try to
make that ridiculous assertion are clearly snowflakes grasping for anything
because they are suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome and their sad,
miserable existence will be crushed when President Trump returns to the White
House.'" </span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="style-scope"><i> </i></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="style-scope">Can we really detect some Hitlerisms in all of this? Well, first you need to do your research. I located the English
translation of <i>Mein Kampf</i> in the
online Gutenberg Library, and did a word search on “blood” and “poison.” What
did I find? Hitler seemed completely absorbed with the use and meaning of these
words as they reflected in his mind the current "state" of Germany and the “purity” of its
people. Here are a couple of excerpts I picked out, which hardly does “justice”
to Hitler’s dementia:</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="style-scope"><i>Our contemporary
generation of weaklings will naturally decry such a policy and whine and
complain about it as an encroachment on the most sacred of human rights. But
there is only one right that is sacrosanct and this right is at the same time a
most sacred duty. This right and obligation are: that the purity of the racial
blood should be guarded, so that the best types of human beings may be
preserved and that thus we should render possible a more noble development of
humanity itself. </i></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="style-scope"><i>The whole organization
of education and training which the People's State is to build up must take as
its crowning task the work of instilling into the hearts and brains of the
youth entrusted to it the racial instinct and understanding of the racial idea.
No boy or girl must leave school without having attained a clear insight into
the meaning of racial purity and the importance of maintaining the racial blood
unadulterated. Thus the first indispensable condition for the preservation of
our race will have been established and thus the future cultural progress of
our people will be assured. </i></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="style-scope"><i>And what measures did
the State take to counteract this wholesale poisoning of the public mind? None,
absolutely nothing at all. By this policy it was hoped to win the favor of this
pest—by means of flattery, by a recognition of the 'value' of the Press, its
'importance', its 'educative mission' and similar nonsense. </i></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="style-scope"><i>This is a God-given
signal. If this fire, as I believe, is the work of the Communists, then we must
crush out this murderous pest with an iron fist. Nature is cruel; therefore we
are also entitled to be cruel. When I send the flower of German youth into the
steel hail of the next war without feeling the slightest regret over the
precious German blood that is being spilled, should I not also have the right
to eliminate millions of an inferior race that multiplies like vermin? </i></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="style-scope"><i>History furnishes us
with innumerable instances that prove this law. It shows, with a startling
clarity, that whenever Aryans have mingled their blood with that of an inferior
race the result has been the downfall of the people who were the
standard-bearers of a higher culture. In North America, where the population is
prevalently Teutonic, and where those elements intermingled with the inferior
race only to a very small degree, we have a quality of mankind and a
civilization which are different from those of Central and South America. In
these latter countries the immigrants—who mainly belonged to the Latin
races—mated with the aborigines, sometimes to a very large extent indeed. In
this case we have a clear and decisive example of the effect produced by the
mixture of races. But in North America the Teutonic element, which has kept its
racial stock pure and did not mix it with any other racial stock, has come to
dominate the American Continent and will remain master of it as long as that
element does not fall a victim to the habit of adulterating its blood. What
makes a people or, to be more correct, a race, is not language but blood. </i></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="style-scope">As suggested there are those who say that democracy won’t
survive another Trump presidency. Some may claim that is an exaggeration, but I
say not. Unless there is something like a symbolic Holocaust—and that could be
a mass country-wide round-up and deportation of Hispanics without regard to
their citizenship and legal status (I mean what do his supporters think he has
planned?)—this country will have a significant portion of the population
forever infused with de facto fascist mindset. Democracy will not matter as
long as their “man” is there to save them from the “others” who have no
legitimate rights because they are not of the “blood.”</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Since “the border” and Latinos/Hispanic are the principle object
of “fear” and the "tool" the far-right fascists hope to use to fashion a fascist white
state, one question we may ask is what about these people who are the stand-ins
for the Jews in Germany in <i>this</i> country? <i>NBC
News</i> reported earlier this year that <span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>“</i><i><span>There
is an ingrained perception among many white people that all Latinos are foreign
no matter how long they’ve been in the United States or how ‘assimilated’ they
are, said Ian Haney López, an expert on racism and a law professor at the
University of California, Berkeley. ‘Many whites view us as 'foreign' when
measured against white people, both in terms of physical and cultural
differences, and then collapse that into the assumption that we're foreign in
the national sense as well,’ said López.”</span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Well,
that is one view. Another is from the Pew Foundation</span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>About two-thirds of U.S. Hispanics (68%) say that if people passed them
on the street they would describe them as Hispanic or Latino. Hispanics who are
foreign born (79%) and second generation (68%) are more likely than the third
or higher generation (50%) to say this. Meanwhile, about one-in-five Hispanics
(18%) say people passing them on the street would describe them as white. This
share increases as immigrant connections grow distant. About 10% of Hispanic
immigrants say a person would describe them as white, while 16% of the second
generation and 33% of the third or higher generation say the same.</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>I
don’t live in a world of illusion. Why are some of these people doing so? Those
who self-identify as “white”—and I am mainly speaking of “mestizos”—are fooling
themselves believing that if they “think white” or “speak white” actually makes
them “white” in the eyes of those who only see a “Mexican.” </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span>The Guardian</span></i><span> after the El Paso mas shooting:</span></span></p>
<p class="dcr-1kas69x" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>“It still impacts you because it rattles you
at your core, especially if you realize they were aiming at Latinos, you ask:
‘I am Latino what does it mean for me?’” Rojas-Flores said. “I was very
troubled by it because I understand the levels of exposure and impact, it keeps
on adding to an already anti-immigrant climate. “It brings to the forefront
more fear.”</i></span></p>
<p class="dcr-1kas69x" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>The fear and violence are the results of a
president who is openly anti-Latino, said Thomas Saenz, the president of
Maldef, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. “The
discrimination is certainly more direct, more open than in my lifetime and
certainly emanates from the president of the United States,” Saenz said, adding
that Trump’s policies and practices seem, “intent on eliminating the Latino
community as an essential part of the country”.</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>The
racism and prejudice that Latinos/Hispanics face in this country is barely if
ever discussed by the national media; thus being rendered voiceless, there is
no push-back on the generalized perception that they are all guilty of
“something,” nor, despite all the evidence to the contrary, is racism and prejudice against regarded as something the general population needs to concern themselves with; after all, they "deserve" it. <i> </i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span><i>NBC News</i> reported that “</span><span face=""var(--article-body-font-family)","serif"" lang="EN" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">Latinos
are barely part of the conversation in newspapers and online media outlets
covering the issue of racial equity and racism, a new study has found":</span><span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span face=""var(--article-body-font-family)","serif"" lang="EN" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">Only about 6% of such news referred to Latinos, who make up nearly 20% of
the American population and over 40% of all people of color, according to a
report published Wednesday by the Berkeley Media Studies Group and UnidosUS. The study analyzed peak news cycles related to racism and racial
equity issues, including wealth, housing and health in the U.S., following the
onset of protests and protest anniversaries between May 1 and Sept. 30 in 2020,
2021 and 2022. </span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span face=""var(--article-body-font-family)","serif"" lang="EN" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">During that span, the authors reviewed 195,536 articles that covered the
topic of race. Only 10,963 articles, or 5.6%, referred to Latinos, with a
dramatic drop-off in coverage in 2021 and 2022, the report noted.“When Latino
experiences, contributions and concerns are excluded from news coverage,
policymakers and the public don’t have the facts needed to craft effective and
inclusive solutions,” said Viviana Lopez Green, senior director for UnidosUS’
Racial Equity Initiative. “Too often, our community is ‘out of sight, out of
mind.’”</span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Rep.
Joaquin Castro gave a</span> speech criticizing news organizations, including the
<i>New York</i> <i>Times</i>, the <i>Washington</i> <i>Post</i>, the <i>Los Angeles</i> <i>Times</i>, for their lack
of reporting on the Latino perspective. “The worst offenders within the
industry are actually news organizations and publishing houses. Some of
America’s most renowned media institutions are the largest and longest perpetrators
of cultural exclusion.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">I read a report whose
author noted how he participated in a phone bank that called Latino voters to
find out who they voted for and why in 2016; the author was surprised to learn
from those who voted for Trump that they were most concerned about illegal
immigration. The author discussed the reasons for this, but overlooked the role
of racism within the Latino community (i.e. not wanting to be "lumped in" with "them"), and the Hispanic community generally.
The racism of the "white" Latinos and the white American population generally focuses
on indigenous peoples…</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYVZYCIG3xGuhF6sog3WdgAvY5ZU-0DhsWbIvthlpS8BIH_s4MYy1Y0wJXdQ85SOlArUHYMOPU1jFu7PyDOLUlLcEGPdIMjPv6IQd5jIocOGFLSFsUu5Y9Y1baKVA1lHcrUhp1ANhYfT00IO56-9Fst-M52EH0N-TiEJb9v_vk6IIvOjtMk6t2O7rDgO5V/s1199/x.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1199" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYVZYCIG3xGuhF6sog3WdgAvY5ZU-0DhsWbIvthlpS8BIH_s4MYy1Y0wJXdQ85SOlArUHYMOPU1jFu7PyDOLUlLcEGPdIMjPv6IQd5jIocOGFLSFsUu5Y9Y1baKVA1lHcrUhp1ANhYfT00IO56-9Fst-M52EH0N-TiEJb9v_vk6IIvOjtMk6t2O7rDgO5V/s320/x.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">…who in fact
tend to be harder working and less crime-prone than other groups; as noted I suspect that this
is because Latinos who consider themselves “white” and yet discover that other
white people just lump them with the hated “others” don’t like being so, thinking
they are of a higher “caste”--as if that matters. <br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that
indigenous peoples in Central America are migrating in greater numbers than other
“ethnicities” because they are the ones most likely to be targeted for violence
and abuse by both the government and gangs—not to mention the fact the many
decades where the U.S. government actively worked to thwart protestations for
their rights, particularly through “leftist” governments that have been
habitually overthrown with the help of the U.S. government.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">And so it goes.
It is tough walking around knowing that people look at you and wondering if you
are “legal,” or your not “like them,” or they have their “criminal” or “drug
dealer” paranoia—or laughable sexual stereotypes (especially for a loner like
me). I recall I had just walked into QFC store going down an aisle to the cash machine when
out of the corner of my I noted a white female, a complete stranger (I don’t
know anyone in Seattle) walking toward me with a smirk on her face; as she
passed me she said “Looking at my boobs?” Funny, but she gave me the perfect
rejoinder: “No, I’m looking at a boob.” </span></p>
Mark W. Kittellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767307312025397299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201311015829526785.post-20445959659583728062023-12-17T13:39:00.000-08:002023-12-17T13:58:35.406-08:00Packer defense lets Baker Mayfield of all people run roughshod over them in embarrassing loss to Buccaneers<p> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">With game-time temperatures
in the low 40s, about 10 degrees above normal highs in December, one can say it
was downright “balmy” in Green Bay; Jordan Love should have been more mobile than he
was last week in New York. The Packers were facing the Buccaneers,
who also had a 6-7 record, but were in a three-way tie for first place in the
NFC South. The Buccaneers’ starting quarterback, Baker Mayfield, has a
reputation as a head case, but unlike people like Ryan Leaf he has managed to
let his play on the field do most of his “talking.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Mayfield may be
too much of a head case to be a “winner,” but his numbers have looked adequate
enough to make him a better option than some others, especially if he has
weapons to play with, like Chris Godwin and Mike Evans. As for the Packers,
they are still without Christian Watson, and AJ Dillon is out as well—which is
probably the reason why the Packers didn’t wait to activate Aaron Jones for the
game. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Buccaneers
opened things up with a field goal, but the Packers drove right down to the
Tampa Bay 4 before losing the ball on downs. It didn’t matter; a sack-fumble gave
the Packers the ball right back at the same spot and took the lead on a Love TD pass
to Tucker Kraft. But Mayfield was on “fire”—completing 4 of 4 for 61 yards and
a TD to Evans to retake the lead 10-7. But like last week, defense was in short
supply in the first half, and after an Anders Carlson field goal tied the game, it was only to be
answered again as the Buccaneers retook the lead
13-10 on a Chase McLaughlin field goal in the closing seconds. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Packers
trailing at the half is never a good sign. Mayfield was 12-14 for 187 yards, and going into the second half the Packer network game announcers remarked
that Mayfield was having a “career” game, or at least up to that point.
Unfortunately for the Packers, Mayfield continued to shred the Packer
secondary. The third quarter started with a three-and-out by the Packers and
Mayfield proceeded to throw for 64 yards and a TD pass to Rachaad White. But
the Packers tried to keep up, answering after recovering from a first-and-20
with a 17-yard TD pass from Love to Jayden Reed on third-and-14. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But again came
back Mayfield and the Buccaneers. Despite being sacked for the fourth time, Mayfield
connected with Godwin for 21 yards on second-and-18, on the way to completing
four passes for 67 yards and a TD to Ko Kieft to make it 27-17 at the end of
three quarters. Mayfield threw for 131 yards in the third quarter alone for 318
yards and 3 TDs at that point. Not that Love was playing poorly; by the time
the Packers answer with a field goal to make it 27-20 early in the fourth, he
was 25-32 for 242 yards, 2 TDs and no interceptions. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But would the
Packer defense hold just one time? The defensive line managed to do its job,
recording its fifth sack of the game, but where was the defensive backfield? A 52-yard
pass to David Moore briefly was possibly a fumble out of the end zone, but
instead the ruling on the field stood and it was a touchdown to make it 34-20
with 6:30 to play. At that point Mayfield was 22 of 28 for 381 and 4 TDs.
Incredible, but then again he has Godwin and Evans, and the Packers don’t, and although
Dontayvion Wicks was giving it a good shot, Romeo Doubs was mostly a ghost.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But give Love some
credit, he continued to be a gamer. But on <span> </span>fourth-and-ten at the Tampa Bay 30, Love
couldn’t do what Russell Wilson was famous for doing, running away from defenders
20 yards behind the line of scrimmage and lofting miracle passes (yes, we
remember that two-point conversion in the 2014 NFC Championship game where the
Packers blew a 19-7 lead with 5 minutes to play against the Seahawks). Love was
sacked for a 19-yard loss and fumbled. Mayfield didn’t throw a pass the rest of
the game and didn’t need to; Packers used up all their timeouts and allowed a
fourth-down conversion to ice the game for the Buccaneers. Mayfield finished
with a perfect 158.3 passer rating, and Godwin caught 10 passes for 155 yards.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Packer defense
was awful, I mean really. The Buccaneers came into the game averaging 304.4 yards
of offense a game, ranked in the bottom third of the league, and in this game
gained 452 yards, and were 7 of 11 on third down conversions, and punted just once. But most of the blame
was on the defensive backfield, still playing without Jaire Alexander, and this
is another performance that calls into question defensive coordinator Joe Barry’s
continued employment after the season. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">As bad as the Packers
rushing defense has been this season (allowing over 200 yards to the Giants
last week), they were actually in the top-10 in passing yards allowed, but not
in this game; Mayfield’s 381 yards was the second best of his career, and the
353 net passing yards was the most the Packers have allowed this season. But
against Mayfield?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Love finished 29
of 39 for 284 yards and 2 TDs for a respectable 111.5 rating, but Jones was a
non-factor, and Love’s fumble was predictably devastating to any chance the
Packers had of making a comeback. The loss equaled by score the Packers
previous worst game this season, against the Lions, and both losses were at
home. The Packers are now 6-8 and their playoff chances—let alone avoiding a
losing season—are now somewhat doubtful. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">So after beating
three teams on their “toughest” stretch of the season, the Packers have lost to two
teams they “should” have beaten. But they are a “young” team, we are told, and they
still have to learn how to handle “success.” The Packers now go on the road to
play a terrible Panthers team that somehow won just its second game of the season
by a 9-7 score against the Falcons. The Packers will then go on the road to play
the Vikings still starting a backup and then at home against the Bears. Easy
wins, right? We shall see.</span></p>
Mark W. Kittellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767307312025397299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201311015829526785.post-25656105040116898452023-12-14T15:45:00.000-08:002023-12-14T16:55:27.955-08:00Willful blindness and stupidity might be just part of the "culture" in this country, but then there is "The Border"<p> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">We live in a
country where willful blindness and stupidity is part of the “culture.” Before
he was a member of Congress, Mike Johnson ignored his father’s pleas to
stop the burning of toxic munitions in his own neighborhood. According to
Johnson’s stepmother, he wouldn’t even give his own father—who survived a near
fatal industrial explosion—five minutes of his time<span> </span>at his legal office. Johnson—a “creationist”
and religious fanatic—is someone who doesn’t believe in taking care of the
environment “because we have a finite amount of time here and God will take
care of you. It’s crazy,” she told <i>The
Guardian</i>. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">We also live in
a country where fantasy morphs into “fact” because personal responsibility is
no longer an excuse for making bad decisions or doing things you “regret” in
hindsight. An appellate judge in California who is hearing the appeal of a Marilyn
Manson accuser’s case--after it was dismissed for being outside the statute of
limitations, claiming “suppressed memory"--wondered “is there a limit to our
duty to accept things as true, no matter how improbable? I mean, what if the
plaintiff alleges, ‘I suppressed it for 10 years because I was abducted by
aliens, and the aliens controlled my mind, and therefore I had no ability to
remember, and when I finally escaped from the aliens, it all came back to me.’
Do we have to accept something like that as true?” </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The judge also wondered if the
court should accept as “true” a claimant’s assertion that they had time traveled,
suggesting the claimant had walked through a time portal to the past to
“re-live” what she was accusing Manson of to "remember" it "better." </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">And then some
people only see the world through their own eyes, and not what someone else—like, say,
this woman’s husband—may be seeing instead:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2KbdZTyFMuHw_ox_wc72jEs_SUmnGui7UNdJRO2d5YGhhIfUq3x6a3rEjv1lCfn_d3jbN41gKCRvmKgPuVG9hyphenhyphen9M5Kqfo-7Pd1bky5GpW5rtP6fgKqP7QQ23JQiSAKfnwo1LLiDZdP2BCGgUAG0gycUcc412LLOF6jBvCxcREaJ9dhrZU5wY-4qswGryl/s3119/IMG_20230919_203417337.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2031" data-original-width="3119" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2KbdZTyFMuHw_ox_wc72jEs_SUmnGui7UNdJRO2d5YGhhIfUq3x6a3rEjv1lCfn_d3jbN41gKCRvmKgPuVG9hyphenhyphen9M5Kqfo-7Pd1bky5GpW5rtP6fgKqP7QQ23JQiSAKfnwo1LLiDZdP2BCGgUAG0gycUcc412LLOF6jBvCxcREaJ9dhrZU5wY-4qswGryl/s320/IMG_20230919_203417337.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">You think he
might be regretting marriage too, at least to chronic, self-involved, no-fun complainers like this?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Meanwhile,
Ukraine is still fighting for its life and in need of more assistance with the
coming of winter. But it seems that since “victory” is not yet in sight, many
Americans are getting bored with the whole thing. Republicans are taking
advantage of this by demanding that an even more draconian border policy be
enacted before they even consider sending more aid to Ukraine. According to the
<i>Washington Post</i>, </span></p>
<p class="wpds-c-cydrxm" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>On Capitol Hill, the dispute has become
exceedingly acrimonious. Last week (Ukraine president) Zelensky was scheduled
to virtually address a House and Senate briefing on Ukraine, but he canceled
that appearance shortly before the gathering devolved into a shouting match
over U.S. border policy and several Republicans stormed out.</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Alright, so
let’s talk about what Republicans want to do about the “border.” Well, it's
actually quite simple: they do not want any “brown-skinned” people allowed in
this country, at least the one’s with Spanish names. NPR noted that “At the
heart of Republican promises are expanding the immigration detention system,
strengthening Border Patrol, deputizing local law enforcement, deploying
military to the border, and large scale deportations. One of the main concerns
they have expressed has been fentanyl coming over the border- although, as NPR
reported -virtually no migrants or asylum seekers have been caught smuggling
fentanyl, and it mostly comes through legal ports of entry.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Republicans also
want to shutdown asylum claims for anyone attempting to do so at the border,
unless they are European or Asian, who will at least get an expedited hearing.
All asylum claims by Spanish-speakers—even those from “socialist” countries
like Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela—would only “legitimate” if they are made in
“third-party” countries that are just as dangerous as the country they are leaving. Otherwise, they are all “fake.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Donald Trump
claims he will only be a “dictator” for a day if he is elected in 2024, which of course
is meaningless because if he promulgates the policies of a “dictator” for even
one day, it means those policies continue to be in force. If Trump declared
the Insurrection Act during his one-day “dictatorship,” he still would be a de
facto “dictator.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Of course his
rivals for the presidential nomination are doing their best to “out-do” him. It
is beyond hypocrisy that a South Asian like Nikki Haley who ignores the abuses
of H1B visas and people overstaying those visas with the aid of their South
Asian employers altering their records, is touting a “catch and deport"
policy. <span> </span>Of course for her own “people,”
she has a “fix” for that: "For those that have been here longer than that,
we've got to start seeing, who is it? How long have they been here? Have they
been vetted? Have they paid taxes? Have they been working?” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">This
implication, of course, is that some people here illegally should be treated
with more “respect” than others, based on preconceived prejudices. Like her fellow presidential hopefuls, Haley also
endorses ending birthright citizenship for children of “illegals.” Haley’s
Indian compatriot, Vivek Ramaswamy, also brings his cultural caste and racial
bigotries into the fore. He apparently believes that the concept of <i>jus soli</i> only applies to foreign
nationals who are here “legally,” if only on “temporary” work visa—or in the
case of “birth tourism,” here “legally” on tourist visas. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The 1898 Wong Kim Ark
U.S. Supreme Court decision, however, remains the “law” of the land, granting
birthright citizenship to all save those children of foreign nationals here on
foreign government business with no intent to live here, which is as much policy
for those foreign governments as the U.S., so as to keep control of potential
“dissidents.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But all this is
sidebar stuff. What we should be talking about is why we have this border
“crisis.” I’ve talked about this many times, the latest example here: <a href="https://todarethegods.blogspot.com/2023/10/us-immigration-policy-since-1965-can-be.html">https://todarethegods.blogspot.com/2023/10/us-immigration-policy-since-1965-can-be.html</a>.</span>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But because
Republicans are intent on making the same mistakes even worse because their
efforts to shutdown asylum-seeking are about the
possibility that the people they disparage as “vermin” might not vote for them
in elections, we might as well talk about this again. To be honest, the
American media (outside mainly NPR) never talks about why migrants are coming
to this country, thus in affect this failure to confront U.S. policies as the
principle driver of the “crisis” is never discussed, and people generally
remain ignorant of it; I mean, people don’t want to feel “bad” or guilty about
what their representatives have done in their name.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">This country
apparently feels that “asylum” is only for those fleeing countries in wars that
we support (say, Ukrainians) or those seeking asylum on “political” grounds
(say, China). But the U.S. is intensely hypocritical about this; countries like
Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua are on the U.S. “socialist” shit list, yet asylum
requests even from those countries generally treated with indifference even if
they are more likely to be more “conservative” politically. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The overload of
hypocrisy is boundless. People are completely oblivious of the “irony” of a
country like Nicaragua which has no connection to the U.S., and thus despite
its “socialist” reputation, it is a much safer place to live than in other
Central American countries and Mexico. Its police forces are decentralized, and
officers tend to serve the neighborhoods they live in, so there is an incentive
to keep the places they live in safe, and thus discouraging gangs and drug
traffickers from getting a foothold. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">This is quite
different than in the “triangle” countries, where the police are centralized
into a single force and have little incentive to risk their lives for people
they don’t know. The reality is that these centralized forces, in the past funded and armed by the U.S., were established less to enforce the law, but to suppress people who opposed the regime in power (like the right-wing murder regimes in the 1980s and 90s). </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Corruption was of course just part of the game of survival in
countries wracked with drug violence, like Mexico. The Alex Cox film <i>Highway Patrolman</i>, which I talked about here <a href="https://todarethegods.blogspot.com/2021/07/alex-coxs-comeback-film-highway.html">https://todarethegods.blogspot.com/2021/07/alex-coxs-comeback-film-highway.html</a><span> </span>looks at the reality of policing in Mexico.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">So the American
media isn’t talking about this, but the UK’s <i>The Guardian</i> has been for years, as if anyone is this country is
listening—and even if anyone is, they probably don’t care and wave it off as “liberal”
bullshit:</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Ramaswamy went so far as to call the refugee problem "fake".
In October, he posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter,
"TRUTH: we need to admit that the U.S. has a self-created fake refugee
problem that is *systemic.* You can't cure a cancer until you acknowledge its
existence."<span> </span>Ramaswamy then promised
to "implement an asylum & refugee moratorium until our borders are
fully secured and our asylum laws are updated - period." Ramaswamy has
also indicated he would end Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which offers
temporary protection from deportation to certain designated groups fleeing
unsafe conditions. </i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Why do our
asylum laws need “updating”? The ones we have are not even being implemented
fairly now. Here are few facts that <i>The Guardian</i> has provided us in recent
years about the people that current asylum laws are "helping":</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span>Jakelin Caal Maquín, the seven-year-old Guatemalan girl who </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/17/guatemalan-girl-jakelin-caal-maquin-death-crossing-us-border"><span>died this month in US custody</span></a></i><i><span>,
is the latest victim of a long, dysfunctional relationship between the US and
its southern neighbours that has cost countless lives over the past
half-century. The forces driving ordinary people to leave their homes and put
their lives at risk crossing deserts with smugglers to get to the US border are
deeply rooted in </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/05/why-migrants-flee-home-countries"><span>Central America’s history</span></a></i><i><span>
of inequality and violence, in which the US has long played a defining role…Experts
on the region argue, however, that when politicians or activists have come
forward on behalf of its dispossessed, the US has consistently intervened on
the side of the powerful and wealthy to help crush them, or looked the other
way when they have been slaughtered. The families in the migrant caravans
trudging towards the US border are trying to escape a hell that the US has
helped to create.</span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span>More often US intervention in the affairs of these small and
weak states has been deliberate, motivated by profit or ideology or both. “The
destabilisation in the 1980s – </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/08/spanish-trial-of-soldiers-behind-uca-atrocity-raises-hopes-of-ending-impunity-in-el-salvador"><span>which was very much part of
the US cold war effort</span></a></i><i><span> – was incredibly important
in creating the kind of political and economic conditions that exist in those
countries today,” said Christy Thornton, a sociologist focused on Latin America
at Johns Hopkins University.</span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span>In the Guatemala highlands, </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/25/guatemalan-town-migrants-american-dream"><span>small-scale farmers</span></a></i><i><span>
are being driven off their land to make way for agro-industry producing sugar
and biofuels. It is an example of why it is often hard to distinguish between
security and economic reasons for migration. The men behind the land grabs are
often active or retired military officers, who are deeply involved in organised
crime. “When communities fight back against land-grabbing, their leaders can be
killed. We’ve seen just in the past year almost two dozen community leaders
assassinated,” (Elizabeth) Oglesby said. “There is a legacy of impunity.”</span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span>Guatemala’s long civil war can in turn be traced back to a
1954 coup against a democratically elected president, Jacobo Árbenz, which was
backed by the US. Washington backed </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/23/guatemala-ex-military-officers-convicted-of-crimes-against-humanity"><span>the Guatemalan military,
which was responsible for genocide against the native population</span></a></i><i><span>.
An estimated 200,000 people were killed between 1960 and 1996. “The point was
to root out anything that looked like communist subversion, but it was really a
scorched earth policy against the indigenous people,” Thornton said.</span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span>The issue of impunity for violence remains central to
Guatemala’s chronic problems. Jimmy Morales, a former comedian and the
country’s president since 2016, has </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/13/guatemala-jimmy-morales-corruption-cicig"><span>announced he is going to
close down</span></a></i><i><span> the UN-backed International
Committee against Impunity in Guatemala (Cicig). Cicig has investigated
corruption cases against Morales, his family and his political patrons, and
links between organised crime and politicians like himself. In September Cicig
headquarters were surrounded by US-donated military jeeps, but there was no
complaint from the Trump White House. On Tuesday, the government announced it
was withdrawing diplomatic immunity from 11 Cicig workers.</span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span>El Salvador is also trapped in a cycle of violence that can
be traced back to a civil conflict in which the US was a protagonist, training
and funding rightwing death squads in the name of fighting communism.“The civil
war really destroyed the economic base of the country and any sense of a
functioning democracy,” said Thornton. “It left a massively militarised
society.”</span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span>Gangs have filled much of the space occupied by civil
society in healthier societies, but they too are largely a US import. The MS-13
gang, frequently referred to by Donald Trump in justification of his hardline
immigration policies, was formed in Los Angeles, and introduced into El
Salvador when its members were deported – often to a country they barely knew:
another instance of unintended consequences which have rubbed salt in the
Central America’s wounds.</span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span>When Manuel Zelaya, Honduras’s reformist president, was
seized by the country’s military in 2009, and flown out of the country to Costa
Rica, still in his pyjamas, </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/07/crisis-of-honduras-democracy-has-roots-in-us-tacit-support-for-2009-coup"><span>the Obama administration
refused to call it a coup</span></a></i><i><span>. Hillary Clinton, the
secretary of state at the time, argued that to do so would have meant cutting
aid at the expense of the Honduran poor. In the first edition of her memoir,
Hard Choices, </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/31/hillary-clinton-honduras-violence-manuel-zelaya-berta-caceres"><span>she admitted working with
other Latin American governments to ensure Zelaya would not return to power</span></a></i><i><span>.
The references to her role were removed in later editions.</span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span>Zelaya had been trying to resolve conflicts over land, that
pitted local campesinos against agro-industry. After the coup, that conflict
was militarised and more than a hundred campesinos were murdered. Organised
crime spread through the country’s institutions and the murder rate soared.
Within a year, </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/honduras"><span>Honduras</span></a></i><i><span>
was the most violent country in the world not actually at war.</span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span></span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span>The current president, Juan
Orlando Hernández, has further militarised the police force. When he looked in
danger of losing his re-election bid last year, he unleashed a wave of violence
against the opposition and extinguished the challenge. The Trump administration
congratulated him on his victory.</span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span>“These societies were poor and violent irrespective of when
the United States became involved in a major way,” Cynthia Arnson, the director
of the Latin American Programme at the Wilson Centre thinktank, said. But she
added: “The US since the very early stages of the cold war has played a
defining role in the evolution of state violence.”</span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">In Mexico, <i>The Guardian</i> reports, simple people
trying to survive...</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9HXas99PjmTYPaiwHYZWddlmgSiA30ytjyl5Ep2ifLpB5CCpD8_UP6wK55kGzKZL3kHAwQg9N3A_CWvMS8TlH0MPjZChULYQgh83Rkx0ZxREf1ortoqvjl24f0Ol3QYH5EBTLVfO_n6-vy-EYugG4RJBO82lZYOJXuAElVvnmGgJaKyU8My9eC2bHATFA/s800/-mexico-mexicans-social_problems-drug_wars-drug_dealers-gron270_low.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="613" data-original-width="800" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9HXas99PjmTYPaiwHYZWddlmgSiA30ytjyl5Ep2ifLpB5CCpD8_UP6wK55kGzKZL3kHAwQg9N3A_CWvMS8TlH0MPjZChULYQgh83Rkx0ZxREf1ortoqvjl24f0Ol3QYH5EBTLVfO_n6-vy-EYugG4RJBO82lZYOJXuAElVvnmGgJaKyU8My9eC2bHATFA/s320/-mexico-mexicans-social_problems-drug_wars-drug_dealers-gron270_low.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">...have found they have to fend for themselves against the cartels
and their hired killers; even when the military intervenes, the cartel gangs
merely hide out in the hills until the soldiers declare “victory” and leave. </span></p>
<p class="dcr-1kas69x" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Those who knew the town of El Limoncito
remember a welcoming and industrious community of lime farmers who poured their
sweat into the soils of Mexico’s sun-baked backlands in search of a better
life. Then the drug conflict exploded and everything changed. The village’s
primary school found itself on the frontline of a six-hour Monday morning
gunfight that sparked a ferocious two-year struggle for control of the area.</i></span></p>
<p class="dcr-1kas69x" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>As gunmen from two rival cartels – armed
with .50-calibre sniper rifles and improvised tanks – fought pitched battles
for El Limoncito’s dusty streets, locals fled, leaving behind everything they
had. “It was all-out war,” remembered one former resident, who asked not to be
named for fear of being killed.</i></span></p>
<p class="dcr-1kas69x" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>El Limoncito’s deserted schoolhouse became a
base for fighters from one of the warring factions – then a blood-spattered
graveyard after their enemies stormed its classrooms in an attempt to retake
the village. Family homes became makeshift forts used to spray invaders with
gunfire. The pale yellow chapel was peppered with bullets and robbed of its
flock.</i></span></p>
<p class="dcr-1kas69x" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>“It’s appalling – we’re in the middle of a
war we never asked for,” said Father Gilberto Vergara, a Catholic priest from
Aguililla, the surrounding municipality in the western state of Michoacán Vergara
said it was impossible to know how many were killed in the battle for El
Limoncito since the gunmen carried their fallen comrades back into the hills.
But the carnage left crystal clear the intensity of the conflict raging in
Mexico’s hinterlands after decades of state abandonment and cartel control. “The
toll goes far beyond the bullets you see on the ground,” Vergara reflected.
“You look around and see the abandoned crops. The people gone. Areas where
people lived happily have become regions of fear.”</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span>El Limoncito, three and a half hours south-west of Morelia,
has been turned into a ghost town by the two-year turf war between a coalition
of crime groups called the Carteles Unidos and the fast-growing </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/02/jalisco-cartel-mexico-rise-guadalajara"><span>Jalisco New Generation cartel</span></a></i><i><span>
(CJNG) whose leader, El Mencho, was born nearby. Every single one of the
bungalows on the village’s rocky main drag is vacant, each empty room filled
with reminders of heartache and horror.</span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span>Mexican soldiers who had occupied the area the previous week
urged reporters not to venture into the fields beyond the village’s last home,
where a machete lay beneath orange and purple graffiti exalting the Jalisco
cartel. Three days earlier an elderly farmer </span><a href="https://english.elpais.com/international/2022-02-17/in-sign-of-escalating-violence-mexicos-narcos-plant-land-mines-in-tierra-caliente.html"><span>had died</span></a></i><i><span>
in the next village after stepping on an improvised landmine. The region’s
untended groves were rumoured to be strewn with such devices. </span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span>Cartel triggermen had abandoned their roadblocks and
retreated into the mountains to avoid a confrontation. Humvees mounted with
Minimi machine guns patrolled the highway that is used to move vast quantities
of drugs through Mexico and on to the US. Anxious locals fretted that the
expulsion of one cartel might simply clear the way for another to seize power,
noting how </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/08/mexico-army-drug-cartels-michoacan"><span>security forces had served
such a purpose in the past.</span></a></i><i><span></span></i></span></p>
<p class="dcr-1kas69x" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>In some Michoacán farming communities such
as Pareo, just north of the hot land, locals have long since abandoned hope of
government protection and again created their own heavily armed militias to
keep out the cartels. “Here we love life … Out there it’s fucked up,” said a
vigilante commander as he showed off one of more than 80 pillbox-style fortlets
his troops use to defend Mexico’s avocado-growing heartlands from the narcos. Amlo
has celebrated the army’s hot land occupation and said displaced families are
starting to return home – but locals dispute official claims the army is now
completely in charge.</i></span></p>
<p class="dcr-1kas69x" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>“They’ve made themselves present – but
taking control will require much more work,” said Vergara. “Are the organized
crime groups no longer here? No – it’s just that we can’t see them. They
haven’t just suddenly evaporated. They are people – and they are somewhere.” The
priest was right. Three weeks later, the cartel killers reappeared, shooting
Aguililla’s mayor dead in broad daylight near its occupied main square.</i></span></p>
<p class="dcr-1kas69x" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">And what for? It’s
a “competition” to feed off the U.S.’ insatiable appetite for illegal drugs, in
a country where impoverishment is a way of life and the drug trade provides a way for "easy" money, and lots of it. It didn’t have to be this way,
but the “war” on the Colombian cartels drove the center of the drug business to
Mexico, and “ironically” free trade agreements have deliberate codicils that
benefit American farmers while driving Mexican small farmers off their lands. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">And all that “vermin”
on the border. It is up to a foreign source like <i>The Guardian</i> to tells us that</span></p>
<p class="dcr-rysp4a" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>The mass of humanity living in a makeshift
encampment at the US border with Mexico is driven by historical forces of which
many Americans are only dimly aware. Demonized by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/donaldtrump">Donald Trump</a> as an
“invasion” of miscreants who should be housed in concentration camp-like tent
cities, the migrants, many of whom are in fact planning on applying for asylum,
persist under the weight of a US history in their home countries as heavy as any
burden they carry with them. In <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/honduras">Honduras</a>, where the
caravan originated, the past decade has seen the terrorizing effects of street
violence by criminal gangs exacerbated by an increased presence of Mexican
cartels, police abuses and the murder of human rights and environmental
activists, most notoriously that of Berta Cáceres in 2016.</i></span></p>
<p class="dcr-rysp4a" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">After the overthrow
of<span> </span>Zelaya; </span></p>
<p class="dcr-rysp4a" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Honduras was run by a series of rightwing
leaders. When the most recent of them, Juan Orlando Hernández, looked likely to
lose his re-election last year to the former journalist Salvador Nasralla, his
government responded with a repression that Amnesty International characterized
as having “violated international norms and the right to personal integrity,
liberty and fair trial guarantees” At least 31 people, the vast majority
civilians, died in the violence, but Orlando Hernández continued in office,
with Trump’s state department congratulating him on his victory while stressing
“the need for a robust national dialogue”.</i></span></p>
<p class="dcr-rysp4a" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">“Old News” is worth
repeating to the hard of head, even if they are a tough nutcase to crack:</span></p>
<p class="dcr-rysp4a" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Honduras is hardly the only country whose
society has been undermined by US political decisions both recent and historic.
In neighboring <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/guatemala">Guatemala</a>,
the US provided extensive aid to the Guatemalan military during the country’s
1960 to 1996 civil war, which killed an estimated 200,000 people. The war
itself was to a large extent an outgrowth of a US-backed coup that ousted the
country’s democratically elected president Jacobo Árbenz, in 1954.</i></span></p>
<p class="dcr-rysp4a" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">And what about
El Salvador, a country of horrors in the 1980s that Oliver Stone made a movie
about, <i>Salvador</i>?</span></p>
<p class="dcr-rysp4a" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>But perhaps no country’s history attests to
the US role in helping to create the conditions for this latter-day exodus than
El Salvador. After an October 1979 coup resulted in a military-civilian junta,
the US government, first under Jimmy Carter and then under Ronald Reagan,
supported the junta even as its civilian members resigned and it grew more
violent.</i></span></p>
<p class="dcr-rysp4a" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>As political polarization accelerated, a
bubbling multi-front guerrilla insurgency united under the umbrella of the
Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN). In turn, the FMLN was met
with increasing death-squad activity by the right. Much of this violence was
orchestrated by US-trained Major Roberto D’Aubuisson, a former intelligence
official.</i></span></p>
<p class="dcr-rysp4a" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>The United States worked furiously to
prevent a D’Aubuisson victory in 1984 elections that saw center-right José
Napoleón Duarte come to power. Despite its role in preventing D’Aubuisson’s
election, the US government for years poured money into Salvadoran military
bodies such as the Atlacatl Battalion, whose chief military maneuver appears to
have been the massacre, a tendency which it carried out in mass killings in
hamlets such as El Mozote and El Calabozo and even in the capital, where it
murdered six Jesuit priests and two lay workers in 1989.<br />
<br />
During El Salvador’s civil war, which lasted until 1992 and killed an estimated
75,000 Salvadorans, hundreds of thousands fled to the United States, especially
to southern California. There, young Salvadoran boys found themselves
endangered by local gangs and coalesced into their own groups, including Mara
Salvatrucha, or MS-13.<br />
<br />
When some of these young gang members, not US citizens though culturally
American, were deported back to El Salvador, they took California’s gang
culture with them. The gangs have since proliferated throughout Central
America. Though MS-13 remains the bete noire of Trump and his acolytes, the
American origins of the gang go almost unreported.</i></span></p>
<p class="dcr-rysp4a" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>All this being the case, it is rather
irresponsible for the United States to take such an active role in creating the
conditions that make people want to flee the countries that make up the Central
American isthmus and then profess shock when they do so.</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">And that’s not
all. It is not at all uncommon for asylum seekers who were denied entry to be deported
back to their home countries where there subsequently murdered by forces
that people who came here for economic reasons never had to face themselves—you
know for what a racist Indian like Ramaswamy called “fake” reasons:</span></p>
<p class="dcr-1kas69x" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Antonio Díaz’s 26-year-old son Oscar was
kidnapped, beaten and left for dead by gang members, the Honduran father
decided to send Oscar and his three brothers to the United States, fearing that
any one of them could be the next victim of the country’s swelling wave of
violence. “I sent them away for their safety,” says Díaz, sitting in a
comfortable and well-furnished three-bedroom home in a town outside San Pedro
Sula, where he owns a fleet of minibuses. “We’re not bad off here,
economically, but I couldn’t bear the thought of my sons getting killed,” he
says.</i></span></p>
<p class="dcr-1kas69x" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>A year and a half after Antonio paid the
$6,000 coyote fee for each of his sons to make the perilous overland journey to
the United States as undocumented migrants, one of the young men – Ángel – was
deported back to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/honduras">Honduras</a>.
A month later he was dead, gunned down on one of his father’s buses by
suspected gang members. “After he was sent back here, I was afraid whenever he
left the house,” says Antonio, who asked that his real name not be used for
fear of retaliation from the gangs, known here as </i><i><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">maras</span></i><i>. “And they killed Ángel just as I’d
feared,” he says.</i></span></p>
<p class="dcr-1kas69x" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Every year hundreds of thousands of Hondurans,
Guatemalans and Salvadorans flee poverty and violence at home in search of a
better life in the United States. And every year tens of thousands of undocumented
migrants are sent home. No one keeps an official record of how many returnees
have been murdered in Honduras. But a review of news reports of killings in the
country compiled by researcher Elizabeth Kennedy at theSan Diego State
University shows that at least 35 people who were deported from the United
States between January 2014 and July 2015 were murdered within months – or even
days – of their arrival in Honduras.</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span>One homicide detective in San Pedro Sula told the </span></i><span>Guardian<i> he estimated that deportees accounted for 10 to 15% of the cases he
investigates in the city, which for the past three years has been </i></span><i><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/may/15/san-pedro-sula-honduras-most-violent"><span>the most violent in the world</span></a></i><i><span></span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>These
stories go back to the Obama administration days to the present time. Nothing
has changed, as has the ignorance and utter lack of responsibility on the part
of the U.S. for causing the border “crisis.” Asylum hearings are a process in
slow motion; if such hearing were adjudicated in a timely manner, instead of
leaving people in limbo, there probably wouldn’t be this “back log” we see
crowding the border. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Equally bad is that “regular” legal immigration procedures
for people from Latin America is a deliberately impossibly slow process--sometimes decades in the making--while
for "favored" groups it is much more streamlined and faster. As a female El Salvadoran
asylum seeker said on a John Oliver show on immigration policy, who was let in or
not was “racist.”</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>So
thank you, <i>The Guardian</i>, for telling
me what I already knew long ago—as if I needed “reminding” after all those multiple
car alarms <span> </span>I hear when I pass by, and that assorted fear-freak
behavior from the paranoid whose only “knowledge” of who I am is their
stereotypes and prejudices spoon-fed to them by politicians, and a media that
either supplies the white nationalist rhetoric about the “Reconquista” or the “white
replacement” theory (Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson) or the “liberal” media
which just feeds you scenes of the “vermin” like this on the border...</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq7FZJjx1G0txOYKTGRuADqr5C_PopTJynYmRjR8aHPnevdk58GERDnrYsKCY9MsDZ15BZLrV4lSOqyH6cfl6gSpHUcEzNqDsGeRYJkAc6GrRlgRwhh1y0sv7hzNcW64GymONG_DQu0aPWW_t5rOn_41R77TD1Mxx2XlFNm_D-WLU0G87iOhCDg5MUEL-P/s1240/6000.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="744" data-original-width="1240" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq7FZJjx1G0txOYKTGRuADqr5C_PopTJynYmRjR8aHPnevdk58GERDnrYsKCY9MsDZ15BZLrV4lSOqyH6cfl6gSpHUcEzNqDsGeRYJkAc6GrRlgRwhh1y0sv7hzNcW64GymONG_DQu0aPWW_t5rOn_41R77TD1Mxx2XlFNm_D-WLU0G87iOhCDg5MUEL-P/s320/6000.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>...for whom being on the bottom of social order isn't anything new if they are indigenous people, without anyone bothering to
ask these human beings what they are escaping from, let alone bothering to go find out
themselves.</span></span></p>
Mark W. Kittellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767307312025397299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201311015829526785.post-88480740515745197952023-12-12T15:48:00.000-08:002023-12-12T17:18:33.282-08:00Israeli inaction in the lead-up to the Hamas attack—not alleged “anti-Semitism” on U.S. college campuses—is far more culpable for the "genocide" of thousands of Israeli citizens <p> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The president of
Harvard University, Claudine Gay, has been under fire for her non-answers and
muddled defense of freedom of speech considering the subject of genocide, which
was admittedly unfortunate; she should have simply said that suggestions of performing
“genocide” was not in compliance with
the school’s civility policy and left it at that. Of course, “genocide” is more
the vision of far-right extremists, while accusing Israelis of “genocide”
against Palestinians is something the “far-left” is being accused of, and these
accusations typically suggest that “leftists” must then support “genocide”
committed by Israel’s enemies, which is ridiculous.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But Gay’s
refusal to be “specific” on the matter is leaving her under attack by far-right
political opportunists as being “anti-Semitic.” <span> </span>Yet last week Sen. Bernie Sanders, who happens
to be Jewish, was the lone vote on the Democratic side of the aisle to vote “no”
on advancing an aid package for Ukraine and Israel. Although the package had no
chance of passing in the far-right controlled House, Sanders issued this
statement on his reasoning:</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>I voted NO on the foreign aid supplemental bill today for one reason. I
do not believe that we should give the right-wing extremist Netanyahu
government an additional $10.1 billion with no strings attached to continue
their inhumane war against the Palestinian people. Israel has the absolute
right to defend itself against the Hamas terrorists who attacked them on
October 7. They do not have the legal or moral right to kill thousands of
innocent Palestinian men, women, and children.</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But Sanders
could have gone further than that, accusing Israel of being culpable in the
deaths of its own citizens. One might recall the events of 9/11. Could it have
been prevented? One might recall Pres. George Bush’s bug-eyed look in that
classroom when he was told of the hit on the first of the Twin Towers; was he
warned that something like this would happen, but shrugged it off as “improbable,”
but now realizing he was terribly wrong and people died because of it? In a CIA
report that informed him that an al-Qaeda attack in the U.S. was “real,” he
reportedly waved it off, saying "All right. You've covered your ass.” 36
days before the attack, the CIA gave Bush another brief, in which he was warned
that a terrorist attack was “imminent,” the very real possibility of it involving
the hijacking of commercial aircraft. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The CIA and FBI
appeared to have their communications crossed concerning known al-Qaeda
operatives in the U.S. at the time and there was little follow-up to find out
what exactly they were up to at the moment. Furthermore, an FBI field agent
memo detailing suspected terrorists training in flight schools only to fly and
not to land commercial aircraft was apparently ignored. Various Bush administration
officials later tried to excuse their failure to take warnings seriously,
claiming that the information was “old news.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">We of course
know that the Bush administration was seeking a "pretext" to invade
Iraq again, <span> </span>borne out by the fact that
it clearly did not prioritize Afghanistan, and many al-Qaeda terrorists and
their Taliban abettors were allowed to escape into Pakistan. Most of the
military effort was put in subduing Saddam Hussein in Iraq and spending over a
decade trying to “pacify” the country. Of course, thousands of Americans died
in Iraq based on the lie of WMDs and non-existent al-Qaeda “links” with the
Saddam regime. The only thing that was actually accomplished by the Iraq war was
to remove what had previously been a regime that was more a thorn in the side
of the Iranians than it was the U.S.’.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">So what about
the Hamas attack on October 7? Did Israel know of it in advance and did
nothing? <i>The New York Times</i> reported
that </span></p>
<p class="css-at9mc1" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Israeli officials obtained Hamas’s battle
plan for the Oct. 7 terrorist attack more than a year before it happened,
documents, emails and interviews show. But Israeli military and intelligence
officials dismissed the plan as aspirational, considering it too difficult for
Hamas to carry out. The approximately 40-page document, which the Israeli
authorities code-named “Jericho Wall,” outlined, point by point, exactly the
kind of devastating invasion that led to the deaths of about 1,200 people.</i></span></p>
<p class="css-at9mc1" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>The translated document, which was reviewed
by The New York Times, did not set a date for the attack, but described a
methodical assault designed to overwhelm the fortifications around the Gaza
Strip, take over Israeli cities and storm key military bases, including a
division headquarters. Hamas followed the blueprint with shocking precision.
The document called for a barrage of rockets at the outset of the attack,
drones to knock out the security cameras and automated machine guns along the
border, and gunmen to pour into Israel en masse in paragliders, on motorcycles
and on foot — all of which happened on Oct.</i> 7.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But that was not
all. Where did Hamas get the money to pay for all this military hardware,
mostly from Iran? In a recent story reported by CNN,</span></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>In 2018, Qatar began making monthly payments
to the Gaza Strip. Some $15 million were sent into Gaza in cash-filled
suitcases – delivered by the Qataris through Israeli territory after months of
negotiation with Israel. The payments started after the Palestinian Authority
(PA), the Palestinian government in the Israeli occupied West Bank that is a
rival of Hamas, decided to cut salaries of government employees in Gaza in
2017, an Israeli government source with knowledge of the matter told CNN at the
time. </i></span></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>The PA opposed the Qatari funding at the
time, which Hamas said was meant for the payment of public salaries as well as
medical purposes. Israel approved the deal in a security cabinet meeting in
August 2018, when Netanyahu was serving his previous tenure as premier. Even
then, Netanyahu was criticized by his coalition partners for the deal and for
being too soft on Hamas. </i></span></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>The prime minister defended the initiative
at the time, saying the deal was made “in coordination with security experts to
return calm to (Israeli) villages of the south, but also to prevent a
humanitarian disaster (in Gaza).” Ahmad Majdalani, an Executive Committee
member at the Palestine Liberation Organization in the West Bank, accused the
United States of orchestrating the payment. </i></span></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Israeli and international media have
reported that Netanyahu’s plan to continue allowing aid to reach Gaza through
Qatar was in the hope that it might make Hamas an effective counterweight to
the PA and prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state. PA officials said
at the time the cash transfers encouraged division between Palestinian
factions. </i></span></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Major General Amos Gilad, a former senior
Israeli Defense Ministry official, told CNN the plan was backed by the prime
minister, but not by the Israeli intelligence community. There was also some
belief that it would “weaken Palestinian sovereignty,” he said. There was also
an illusion, he added, that “if you fed them (Hamas) with money, they would be
tamed.” </i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Far from being “tamed,”
Hamas with the help of its Iranian handlers used the money not for “humanitarian”
reasons, but to stockpile missiles and drones for a major attack on Israel. This
obviously shouldn’t have come as a “complete” surprise, since Israel had
received intelligence that this is exactly what was going to happen. Yet the
regime did nothing to prepare for such a possibility, and the result was that almost
2,000 Israeli civilians were killed because of this deliberate negligence. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Suffice is to
say that isn’t “liberals” in this country who are aiders and abettors of Hamas “genocide”
against Israeli citizens; such an accusation is better applied to the Israeli
government itself.</span></p>
Mark W. Kittellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767307312025397299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201311015829526785.post-37582120169411594632023-12-12T00:12:00.000-08:002023-12-12T05:34:47.571-08:00Packers lose to Giants as near freezing temperatures find Love playing like Tin Man in need of oil <p> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Just some quick
comments on the Packers’ 24-22 loss to the Giants. The Packers, as observed
before, have a relatively favorable final stretch of the season, meaning that their
destiny is firmly in their hands, if the team is as good as we have been led to
believe after the last several weeks. Sure, they were “lucky” they got a break
last week against the Chiefs, but then again even if the Chiefs had scored <i>if</i> that DPI was called, they still had
to complete a two-point conversion to tie the game, so people shouldn’t be
taking that win away from the Packers just so quick. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But now playing
a 4-8 Giants team with their third-string quarterback, surely the Packers had
this in the bag. Unfortunately, Jordan Love did not have his best game, not by
a long shot. He didn’t complete a single red zone pass until the last gift
possession, when Giants running back Saquon Barkley was seemingly on his way to a
game-clinching score when he stumbled and fumbled the ball away while most of
the rest of the Giants team watched Carrington Valentine run 50 yards in the
other direction before somebody decided they’d better go tackle him just in
case. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Maybe it was the
cold weather. In any event, outside of two completions
that covered 43 and 35 yards, Love completed 23 of 37 passes for just 140
yards, as Troy noted he was "off" all night. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Packers, who
had protected the ball in their previous three victories, committed three turnovers
including a Love interception and fumble, although it was only on Keisean Nixon’s
muffed punt that the Giants capitalized with points, while both Giant turnovers
were converted into points, 10 total. One had the feeling that although the
Packers’ offense looked sluggish for most of the game, the Giants were barely
less so, with Tommy DeVito throwing for just 105 yards until the Giants last
possession, the 200+ yards on the ground was the only thing keeping things “competitive.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Just when you
felt the Packers just needed to make one more play to put these pesky Giants
away, in that if you don’t succeed, try, try again way, the Giants somehow
found a way to sneak a touchdown in there. Even after given that “gift” that
allowed the Packers to seemingly score the winning touchdown to make it a 22-21
game, there was still 1:33 left on the clock, and you just knew something very “bad”
was going to happen, because it was just too “easy.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">DeVito, who had
tried as much as possible to avoid throwing the ball all game, decided to take
a chance on throwing the ball past the line of scrimmage and somehow completed
a 32-yard pass to some guy named Wan’Dale Robinson to put the ball in
game-winning field goal position, and wouldn’t you know it, just that quickly
defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">People may point to (another) Anders Carlson missed field goal, but the kicker on the other team also missed an early attempt, so it was a wash.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">This was the
kind of game against a mediocre opponent the Packers needed to win to keep the
momentum going. Next week the Packers play the Buccaneers in near freezing game
time temperatures, and if Love plays like the Tin Man in need of oil then the
Packers may be in trouble.</span></p>
Mark W. Kittellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767307312025397299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201311015829526785.post-54047021480636826202023-12-10T14:21:00.000-08:002023-12-10T14:21:05.771-08:00Are mass shooters actual "loners"--or just a creation of society?<p> </p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Packers play
in the nationally-featured game of tomorrow’s MNF double-header, so today I am
going to make a brief comment about the sentencing of 17-year-old Ethan
Crumbley to life imprisonment for the Michigan Oxford High School mass-shooting in 2021,
when he was 15. While there have been far worse mass-shootings than the 4 dead
and seven wounded in that incident, Crumbley was seen as taking diabolical pleasure in
shooting people, including shooting one individual multiple times. He also left
text and audio messages that suggested a highly disturbed mind.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The focus on the
perpetrator’s state of mind seemed to ignore certain realities. We are told that
Crumbley’s parents are also facing “involuntary” homicide charges not for the
way they “raised” their son, but because they didn’t seek psychological
treatment for him, and that they gave him a gun as a “gift” before he was
legally qualified to have one; in fact, it was probably the parents who were more in need of "therapy."</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But as we can surmise from what he are told in
an <i>Associated Pres</i>s story, white students are often treated with a “lighter” touch
by school officials and society in general; after all, also making the news
cycle is the story about a black high school student in Texas suspended multiple times for
violating its “hair code”:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span>(Psychiatrist Colin) King disclosed for the first time that
the boy believed that a gun was going to be found in his backpack on the day of
the shooting when he was sent to the office for drawing violent images in
class. “Ethan said for the first time in his life he felt relieved,” King
testified. “He said he just knew the sheriffs were going to burst into the
office and arrest him because there was no way, after all that they saw, they
weren’t going to search that backpack.”But the backpack was never checked, and
the boy was allowed to remain in school. He later emerged from a bathroom and
started shooting. </span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span>King said the shooter was raised in a turbulent home by
parents who left him alone for hours, argued in front of him and weren’t
discreet when discussing infidelity, divorce and suicide. The boy was even
forced to figure out what to do with his beloved dead dog.“He can be considered
a feral child,” King said.</span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">A neighbor had
noted that Crumbley’s parents had frequently left him alone in the house in the
evening while they bar-hopped. She claims to have called Child Protective
Services, but did not know if CPS ever did anything. There wasn’t much
said about Crumbley’s relationship with fellow students; prosecutors revealed that
his only friend had moved away, so presumably he was just regarded as a “freak”
by other students. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Of course, we
never learn in this country where gun violence is second nature, school shootings
among them. The Columbine shooters were regarded as “weird” and ostracized, the
Virginia Tech shooter who killed 32 was someone who was unhappy
that girls ignored him, and the Parkland shooter was another who was regarded
as a “freak” by other students. All these people were called “loners,” although
not necessarily by design, or desire. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Not all “loners”
are potentially violent people out to take revenge on society of course, but
you frequently here mass-shooters described as such. In fact, being a “loner”
myself by “nature” who doesn’t actively seek out human companionship and
prefers to engage in activities that do not require the need to “please” other
people, dislikes “drama,” and has no time for the <span> </span>“games” that women expect you to play, I am
perfectly content (especially at this late stage of my life) to leave my “mark”
on the world just writing here whatever is on my mind. The whole world is full of
full of shit and bigoted people, so what can you do about it? Ignore them, or talk about them here. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">I think that
these mass-shooters who are accused of being “loners” don’t actually want to be
“loners.” They may have certain personality or physical traits that turn off
other people, or they are not extroverts, or they don’t have any particular
interest that allows them to “fit in” with certain student “factions.” People
may look at them as “loners” simply because no one thinks there is anything in it for them to be “friendly” with them. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Of course if you
are a “real” loner, this doesn’t actually bother you all that much, because
these other people are just assholes and you don’t need them anyways. The
real “dangerous” people are the tiny percentage of an already tiny percentage who are made into “loners” by
people who actively don’t want anything to do with them, make fun of them and even bully them. As for Ethan Crumbley, we probably haven’t been told
the whole story yet, since we haven’t heard after all this time the interactions
he had with fellow students before the shooting. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">In fact, unlike
a real “loner,” Crumbley seemed to be behaving as an attention-seeker, trying
to “shock” people into paying attention to him with his drawings as he did on the day of the shooting—except
that people didn’t get the “message.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
Mark W. Kittellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767307312025397299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201311015829526785.post-18916263353983473752023-12-07T15:55:00.000-08:002023-12-07T22:56:40.419-08:00The never-ending Meghan media meat grinder <p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">Some “celebrities” are bulletproof.
Take for instance Taylor Swift who supposedly made $4 billion during her Eras
tour, and that was enough to make her TIME’s
“Person of the Year,” although admittedly against a “finalist” group that was
pretty weak, perhaps by intent.</span><span style="line-height: 200%;"> To be honest, this “award” doesn’t have the same impact it did when TIME
actually meant something, but with its failure to adjust to the Internet age, its slimmed-down
content and sinking circulation, being the “Person of the Year” means about as
much as another photo op on the cover of <i>People</i>.
</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">OK,
so you “honor” this person who is nothing without her Aryan-Nordic façade who
can't sing, can't dance, can't "perform" and her tuneless songs are
"Taylor-made" for the "MeToo" generation. I mean, it
already has the aroma of pandering to those mindless teenage fans at her concerts
whose “connection” to her is strictly vicarious; her “songs” are just
peripheral. I'm not a big Madonna fan, but Swift doesn't come close to having
the same talent as she does. I wonder where Swift will be ten years from now
when all she has left are songs people can't even remember. <br /></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">But being
a female celebrity does not guarantee being bulletproof from criticism. I find
it fascinating that although they may deserve it, a black woman like Jada
Pinkett and a (half) Hispanic woman like Rachael Ziegler have been the dartboard
material for many online commentators. But none have seen more toxic skullduggery
than Meghan Markle, currently still the Duchess of Sussex. Whether she deserves
it or not, she has few friends these days on social media (and certainly none
in right-wing media), and daily bombing runs from detractors, some of whom
can be accused of blatant ignorance and hypocrisy. <br /></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">I
count Andy Signore of Popcorned Planet among those; after the Johnny Depp story
died down, he was off seeking new news, and his near daily trashing of Markle,
calling her a “racist”—the way he acts makes you think he has sore feelings from someone calling
him a “racist” in the past (he has already told us he is a "survivor" of a sexual abuse accusation)...</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 200%;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 200%;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUn44CFWT5RhT7eZE51TnyLxcq5XCs89pVz_v2VaTYj8fKCct_B1aOVpEUTzGAiJLP5Rp2A4-P1uhFscKHdPMjBZM0mSwWzuCpkEieBwC6wKw2OU5DbsVxFRzPDYjqjjYvHNUIJSZU1nGtOdyyZ-ILEnt7sIgBwMt1_s4ie3HTlrxVeL30WVX-QtoYMoTP/s320/mqdefault_6s.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="180" data-original-width="320" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUn44CFWT5RhT7eZE51TnyLxcq5XCs89pVz_v2VaTYj8fKCct_B1aOVpEUTzGAiJLP5Rp2A4-P1uhFscKHdPMjBZM0mSwWzuCpkEieBwC6wKw2OU5DbsVxFRzPDYjqjjYvHNUIJSZU1nGtOdyyZ-ILEnt7sIgBwMt1_s4ie3HTlrxVeL30WVX-QtoYMoTP/s1600/mqdefault_6s.webp" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">...and a “liar” simply because “The Firm” denies they
ever made any racially “insensitive” comments or did anything to put Meghan in
her “place.” I mean are you really stupid enough to believe that no one was “concerned”
about muddying the “racial purity” of this originally Germanic family? Prince William did “advise” Harry to wait before deciding to marry her without
even knowing her, and why? <br /></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">I now
see Signore’s content as nothing more than click-bait for the haters, so I just
(S)ignore him now, not that I might have a little “fun” wading through the
comments and adding a reply, because for me it is like a turkey shoot not just of ignorance,
but especially of the juvenile-level hypocrisy. Everyone has “skeletons” in their closet,
like the grade-Z film <i>The Janitor</i>,
which I’m sure Signore hopes nobody remembers; back in the day when DVD
distributors were releasing anything under the sun regardless of “value” I
picked it up in a video store, because anything on DVD was “cool.” I’m not sure I
still have it in my vast disc collection, but I wanted just for the “fun” of it
post a screenshot of Andy in it doing something to a couple of unfortunate characters, but after cursory search failed to turn it up,
I lost interest in that project. <br /></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">Anyways,
I’ve talked about this Meghan thing since back in 2020, so this isn’t
exactly new, but it does indicate that people have absent memories or like a
lot of people get all their news from social and right-wing media hacks. The Meghan-haters
might not be entirely wrong, but they are not entirely right either, and even
the faintest whiff of hypocrisy is enough to send me off on a “turkey” hunting
expedition.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">First for some
“ancient history” which should instruct people about just why “The Firm” and
its UK media stooges have come down like gangsters on Meghan, when all of this
could have been diffused long ago if they had bothered to learn the right “lesson”
on how it handled—or rather, didn’t handle—the</span><span style="line-height: 200%;"> Princess
Diana situation; in trying to defuse negative information about itself, The
Firm was a player in the eventual tragedy. </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">In 1995, then BBC reporter Martin Bashir was accused by The Firm
of “tricking” Princess Diana into giving a controversial interview by playing
on her paranoia about the Firm being out to “get” her, which she already
believed anyways. Bashir was accused of conjuring a forged bank statement that
appeared to show that royal staffers were being paid to spy on Diana and leak
negative information about her to the press; given the fact that Diana had few
friends in the “Firm,” there is no reason to believe this was not true. Of
course later Prince William claimed Bashir put things in her head that were “not
true,” making her “paranoid” and indirectly causing her death. We should take
his statement for what it is: a desperate attempt to rewrite history and throw another
pail of water on a fire that won’t be put out. </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">Meghan’s complaints about living within The Firm in fact
closely resembles that of Diana, who claimed that its members were jealous of
her being the “center of attention” of the media, and it fed stories to the
media that she was “unstable” and “mentally unbalanced.” As it turned out, as
Andrew Morton noted in his biography of Diana, she was responsible (through
“intermediaries”) for the book’s content, and she had not been “coached” by
Bashir. Thus the “shock” was that people were actually seeing her make those
claims in person. The Firm wasn’t just appalled by the sympathy she received
and how bad it made them look, but by what they felt was the “false” image the
media had of her, at odds with the “emotionally unbalanced” princess they
“knew”—and had refused to help if that was the case. This is exactly what people should be taking in
from all these pathetic, hypocritical attacks on Meghan and Harry.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">The
royal family bases its entire reason for being these days on past history and
is tradition hidebound. Many people question its “legitimacy” in the modern
world, and bad PR must be avoided at all costs, especially if it is seen as not
“adapting” to the modern world, which the “adoption” of Meghan into the family
would have “suggested.” But even before the marriage, the UK tabloid media was
doing its level best to cause controversy, including looking for stories that
were not there, and then creating those stories through its irresponsible
behavior. <br /></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">Take for instance the tabloid <i>The Daily</i> <i>Mail</i> <span> </span>which was engaged in an
ongoing campaign to write embarrassing stories about Meghan and her father,
Thomas Markle, causing a rift between them. Contrary to the anti-Meghan propaganda
you hear today, Thomas Markle had been expected to walk his daughter down the aisle
for her wedding, but he repeatedly made excuses not to do so, claiming he
didn’t feel “welcome,” despite repeated attempts by both Prince Harry and
Meghan to get him to show up. The last text to him from Harry before the
wedding was <span style="color: black;">"Speaking to the press WILL
backfire, trust me Tom. Only we can help you, as we have been trying from day
one." </span> <br /></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 200%;">Unfortunately, Thomas
Markle didn’t listen. </span><span style="line-height: 200%;">Mikhaila Friel wrote afterwards in
the <i>Insider</i> that <span style="color: black;">Meghan had a “good” relationship with her father until the
British tabloid media began giving him unwanted attention, taking paparazzi
shots of him in Mexico, and asking him leading questions to feed negative
gossip. He was then embarrassed with staged fake photos of him “preparing” for
a wedding he never attended, claiming heart trouble. Naturally, Thomas Markle—shamed
and feeling sorry for himself—allowed himself to be played by British tabloids
like the <i>Mail</i> in order to put his
daughter in the worst possible light.</span></span><span style="line-height: 200%;"></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">And that was just the beginning. People
think that Princess Kate is such a calm, collected person who holds herself
with “dignity,” but to me behind the façade lurked an envious and evil spirit
who delighted in seeing Meghan creamed by the press and undefended by The Firm;
as a “woman” you might have expected her to say something to criticize the UK
media's unfair attacks on Meghan, but she never did. Why should she complain when
the tabloids was doing her dirty work for her? </span></span></p>
<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnof0CuNccPJocrDXMa7sHk9IJtzxNJRYfS-zlhFhAFWhAht_51r1r_mltugkrV2mAqB9noavescbz4JYcVdbwOgrlk1q3yHKzk9jvtnoMG1ZreglRO4xHQ_9MkfBCA2OhzgxjdpL-uHB9OXgMFrK_vOPh3w9fM6rEn0pPSX-T8XAho3DFWCHWl8B5Wqa_/s1054/Screenshot%202023-12-06%20120612.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="747" data-original-width="1054" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnof0CuNccPJocrDXMa7sHk9IJtzxNJRYfS-zlhFhAFWhAht_51r1r_mltugkrV2mAqB9noavescbz4JYcVdbwOgrlk1q3yHKzk9jvtnoMG1ZreglRO4xHQ_9MkfBCA2OhzgxjdpL-uHB9OXgMFrK_vOPh3w9fM6rEn0pPSX-T8XAho3DFWCHWl8B5Wqa_/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-06%20120612.png" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilfjtb7KxnaUkn6EVZX1BHNOx5ahyphenhyphenvFsZ_GmzGUzw9J9z9cK0xyI79d2PCdPnPrRs8rjLpmCb0mpOEsm6gs4s8bywtouOM-oVzSyN-i5rM04tKhBV-rS3PY5ITCrm9eOO3rGIU0DB-XslKvxZlJNrt-ZNdhm4f48eB6JQfhRxZpvau18cN9xDS88E7G9Ku/s739/Screenshot%202023-12-06%20115921.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="406" data-original-width="739" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilfjtb7KxnaUkn6EVZX1BHNOx5ahyphenhyphenvFsZ_GmzGUzw9J9z9cK0xyI79d2PCdPnPrRs8rjLpmCb0mpOEsm6gs4s8bywtouOM-oVzSyN-i5rM04tKhBV-rS3PY5ITCrm9eOO3rGIU0DB-XslKvxZlJNrt-ZNdhm4f48eB6JQfhRxZpvau18cN9xDS88E7G9Ku/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-06%20115921.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit5HYqfOfCxMYX3hT4j3bHfB947Tiik_XiFTJKxKKc5BX7AjFItcRkW4tVKnDYoc_sThyATRUZSGfW_s2-_WZE88jmHwyJEQxcevFrx3p785PD04-HShX9tZFMN2OwUE1ULpdcq74mgDzDefNEuZ9F40qgHE1xYJ7yR6jSE9q3QIxTFzieD5Sx21gc2OZN/s1092/Screenshot%202023-12-06%2012045.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="842" data-original-width="1092" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit5HYqfOfCxMYX3hT4j3bHfB947Tiik_XiFTJKxKKc5BX7AjFItcRkW4tVKnDYoc_sThyATRUZSGfW_s2-_WZE88jmHwyJEQxcevFrx3p785PD04-HShX9tZFMN2OwUE1ULpdcq74mgDzDefNEuZ9F40qgHE1xYJ7yR6jSE9q3QIxTFzieD5Sx21gc2OZN/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-06%2012045.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtEstz1Z6nHxPnxU8j_bxrk_pfTqPnJf4DUTCj9KN48oljn4Nz0mBfgeh6ybHVj6JyL5CELeD-Fs7OTCbOBESd4E2a2bVq_7vCPbCFpLkteJkclQiblAtT60q_aOAm2W9mbpcgMeiGydbtKCSHlKKGtBWJqY39m08bdsFPRzOpmvU2E9eV5boPd8u1Gdbo/s1115/Screenshot%202023-12-06%20120350.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="628" data-original-width="1115" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtEstz1Z6nHxPnxU8j_bxrk_pfTqPnJf4DUTCj9KN48oljn4Nz0mBfgeh6ybHVj6JyL5CELeD-Fs7OTCbOBESd4E2a2bVq_7vCPbCFpLkteJkclQiblAtT60q_aOAm2W9mbpcgMeiGydbtKCSHlKKGtBWJqY39m08bdsFPRzOpmvU2E9eV5boPd8u1Gdbo/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-06%20120350.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">What was the response to all of this
from The Firm leading up to Megxit? Deathly silence. Meghan was not permitted
to respond to these unfair and degrading headlines, and people were “surprised”
when she did talk about how she felt about these experiences, the lack of support
she felt, and the probable reasons why? She was being treated worse than this
guy…</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 200%;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 200%;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjshejG3CpEhD19CWLG-lFGjy4Dib-gMMuq0PYLgPDmPYDQ62woZVt3JlIrWWLS20XuQ8dHaFp1EVseFSub5JaK1u2939QO9hOdfyiCcwmpktdGoSZFC1d2i46k57M4SoyLNj_2U18Znlvg35qh5-92DbB252Ia80_Ko1qqn3V6-OK-MN8sSDfgpA5VonNV/s960/248b4283-deba-41c8-aa97-471512d010e7.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="636" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjshejG3CpEhD19CWLG-lFGjy4Dib-gMMuq0PYLgPDmPYDQ62woZVt3JlIrWWLS20XuQ8dHaFp1EVseFSub5JaK1u2939QO9hOdfyiCcwmpktdGoSZFC1d2i46k57M4SoyLNj_2U18Znlvg35qh5-92DbB252Ia80_Ko1qqn3V6-OK-MN8sSDfgpA5VonNV/s320/248b4283-deba-41c8-aa97-471512d010e7.jpg" width="212" /></a></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 200%;"> …and this one…</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 200%;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSt8C_-h-pWf_uzQiXICxGSC-pMlt1_AxSkhp_5XZSCD1cTVzJV41aXhaxDNlETFDSkWQyFqYylMZOt3WPBKlvMttm6vmiPPGRuULW1nCFWks81_8Fm2OTnnhAlVoWDF3MmDRWCgCqLJTpnZ19c8-gnDBwI5GAy8DDuPBHUw3gFOb043WFQ_BZ_MtKRsyQ/s1200/adolf-hitler-r-with-the-duke-and-duchess-of-windsor-.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSt8C_-h-pWf_uzQiXICxGSC-pMlt1_AxSkhp_5XZSCD1cTVzJV41aXhaxDNlETFDSkWQyFqYylMZOt3WPBKlvMttm6vmiPPGRuULW1nCFWks81_8Fm2OTnnhAlVoWDF3MmDRWCgCqLJTpnZ19c8-gnDBwI5GAy8DDuPBHUw3gFOb043WFQ_BZ_MtKRsyQ/s320/adolf-hitler-r-with-the-duke-and-duchess-of-windsor-.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">…hell, worse than that “who can
that be” girl in the middle there practicing how to do a proper Nazi salute:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 200%;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 200%;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV5mGP7hRmHwZh0r20hKJILc8TCueZWj4hnkNtCC1CmDf4LcW1cXkA2GzxSOBFZCcJYgTuEX4-9oKzslE5nj5adyIYIGx9pY4XwQQH_QM0FRHtH_AOHL0uC1wbIEg73yELZctlMWrxDfon8i2IA-EWcl8v7-ASQ0fth0CFUt8jPITyWlaJvO6cXGg9TlMo/s634/2AA842D300000578-3167587-image-m-16_1437347546836.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="506" data-original-width="634" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV5mGP7hRmHwZh0r20hKJILc8TCueZWj4hnkNtCC1CmDf4LcW1cXkA2GzxSOBFZCcJYgTuEX4-9oKzslE5nj5adyIYIGx9pY4XwQQH_QM0FRHtH_AOHL0uC1wbIEg73yELZctlMWrxDfon8i2IA-EWcl8v7-ASQ0fth0CFUt8jPITyWlaJvO6cXGg9TlMo/s320/2AA842D300000578-3167587-image-m-16_1437347546836.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">Of course the House of Windsor used to be known by its German name of origin, the </span></span><span><span style="font-size: large;">House of Saxe-Coburg Gotha until 1917.</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 200%;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">In the broadcast media, right-wing provocateur Piers Morgan led the charge against Meghan. He was accused of being "vindictive" because Meghan wasn't returning his phone calls. </span></span><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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Guardian</i>,</span></span></p>
<p class="dcr-1kas69x" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">Piers Morgan
stormed off the set of Good Morning Britain on Tuesday after his co-presenter
Alex Beresford criticised the way he “continues to trash” the Duchess of
Sussex. His co-host, Susanna Reid, was forced to send the ITV show to an early
break after the row boiled over and Morgan walked off live on air. Beresford
called his behaviour “pathetic” and “diabolical.”</span></i></p>
<p class="dcr-1kas69x" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">In the
exchange on Tuesday morning, Beresford noted the “overwhelming” amount of
negative press Harry and Meghan have been subject to since they got engaged and
the impact it has had on the couple’s mental health. Speaking to Oprah, Meghan
detailed how her mental health deteriorated while she was pregnant amid the
barrage of negative press and lack of support from “the firm”, which had
repeatedly turned down her appeals for help and discouraged her from leaving
the house for months.</span></i></p>
<p class="dcr-1kas69x" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">She disclosed
that she had suicidal thoughts during that time and was afraid to be left
alone. “It was all happening just because I was breathing,” Meghan said. “I
just didn’t want to be alive any more. And that was a very clear and real and
frightening constant thought.” </span></i></p><p class="dcr-1kas69x" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The self-serving Morgan did his part, of course:</span><i><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">Beresford
said:“I understand that you don’t like Meghan Markle, you’ve made it so clear
a number of times on this programme, and I understand you’ve got a personal
relationship with Meghan Markle and she cut you off. She’s entitled to cut you
off if she wants to. Has she said anything about you since she cut you off? I
don’t think she has but yet you continue to trash her." Morgan, 55, then stormed
out of the studio, saying: “OK, I’m done with this, sorry, no, can’t do this.”</span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1shWX9yKN36Ln8bcQX_jINbq00yuUalVJaGRDSrby1gx81P5lSbro6cZ5qhCGtEHLszSD-5yRee1WOHdVacqmYcYUtR66aKFV9Kkbn62d7DeC0kkPkdb72AN8Nul5PbNeJM8-wGy_uaeNiJfn_nh5w9mD5SuUF48skAviShGM0UQQ_PH8G3hU1afKR4VI/s1139/Screenshot%202023-12-07%20134341.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="594" data-original-width="1139" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1shWX9yKN36Ln8bcQX_jINbq00yuUalVJaGRDSrby1gx81P5lSbro6cZ5qhCGtEHLszSD-5yRee1WOHdVacqmYcYUtR66aKFV9Kkbn62d7DeC0kkPkdb72AN8Nul5PbNeJM8-wGy_uaeNiJfn_nh5w9mD5SuUF48skAviShGM0UQQ_PH8G3hU1afKR4VI/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-07%20134341.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /> </span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 200%;">Of course, like any vindictive, bullying coward,
Morgan found<i> </i>a far-right network that allows him to spew his bile
unfettered. We should also remember that Internet content providers typically are solo-viewed, either for or against, allowing no one to contradict their views. Mostly against, naturally, because hate is a stronger emotion than "love." </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 200%;">Apparently there is a new book out by a "royal watcher" who is accused being a "front" for "lies" being told about The Firm by the Sussexes. Signore, for example has been throwing around every invective he can conjure up, but accusing Meghan of racism was the last straw for me, for calling people who call out racism "racists" is as I have suggested, is usually resorted to by people with something to hide. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 200%;">I mean, really, you honestly think that there was never any "suggestion" of racial insensitivity in a previously pure-white clan which no doubt had a few Mrs. Danvers in the household? Are people that stupid? After all, Prince William did "advise" Harry to "think things over" before allowing Meghan into the Klan. <br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 200%;">As I noted before, The Firm didn't learn the right "lessons" from the Princess Diana affair. She felt alienated and friendless, and she was simply shown the highway. When she finally spoke out about this in the 1995 interview, instead of admitting that they could have handled things better, The Firm fumbled and stumbled, finally deciding to deny all and "suggest" that Diana's "mental state" was the problem. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 200%;">The press and public were still trying to get a grip on the accusations Diana made when she was killed in that car crash. Caught between a rock and a hard place, the members of The Firm played along with the grief felt by many around the world (her death coincided with that of Mother Theresa, and many observed the unbalanced nature of this "grief"). </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 200%;">If Meghan's claims about The Firm's support, or lack thereof, in the face of the irresponsible and false attacks made on her by the tabloid media are true (and why not believe them?), it obviously didn't learn the right lessons. Did they actually think that Meghan would passively allow this to happen to her and not speak out about it? And when she did, the Firm along with its media stooges reacted not by acknowledging "misunderstandings" but by engaging in a full frontal attack on Meghan. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 200%;">As pointed out, The Firm has a motive from trying to keep negative attention away from itself, and its answer to it is implausible deniability (what, who said what?), issuing self-serving statements and using its right-wing media hacks to carry its water. Naturally, most of vindictiveness we see in social media is motivated by the idea that Meghan's position is "bought" and she is thus a "fake" royal because, well, she is (half) black American. I mean, at least the rest married fellow white Brits, so at least they have some "credibility."</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></p>
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Mark W. Kittellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767307312025397299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201311015829526785.post-14968757748175049242023-12-05T15:45:00.000-08:002023-12-05T15:45:06.806-08:00Who is this new president of Argentina who has Trumpists all in a joyful mood?<p> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The other day I
came across a YouTuber salivating over some guy I never heard of, but
apparently was someone who has Trumpists all in a mania of fantasia. His name
is Javier Milei, and he looks like a bloated version of Joaquin Phoenix:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8nCeRMYLBOwEoQv6OFCWl4i1ASmrn-nWv1JtcFRsi-4-oZOBwz8eICXGjznRWdFw-FdBR_vjFdcDOk_l2ovu46jcald7IXSCSCWmf8gByCi-lt8ScuGqLoFD0YhswWzAI7L5hkPT6CJucP0WfR_-BAdHADNLNO6UNArR2SWhpviPYHYrZ57d9SlsXuq8y/s1200/RTSR6CEU.JPG.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8nCeRMYLBOwEoQv6OFCWl4i1ASmrn-nWv1JtcFRsi-4-oZOBwz8eICXGjznRWdFw-FdBR_vjFdcDOk_l2ovu46jcald7IXSCSCWmf8gByCi-lt8ScuGqLoFD0YhswWzAI7L5hkPT6CJucP0WfR_-BAdHADNLNO6UNArR2SWhpviPYHYrZ57d9SlsXuq8y/s320/RTSR6CEU.JPG.webp" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">So he resembles
a celebrity, so what else has he done to inspire such adoration from the
far-right? Well, it seems that he was recently voted in as the new president of
Argentina. Milei was at one time the Argentinian version of Tucker Carlson, who of course thought he was the smartest person alive even though his actual
understanding of the dynamics underpinning the issues of the day were no more deep
than his “gut." </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Which is surprising since Milei is an economist by
training; but there is little to suggest that this training has left him any more
qualified to “fix” things than that <i>Monty
Python</i> skit where architect John Cleese presents his model of a block of apartment
flats as a slaughterhouse of the tenants. <span> </span>Still, he is described as a political<span> </span>“outsider”—you know, like Donald Trump—and of
a “libertarian” bent, which is of course what people call someone who doesn’t
really have a political philosophy.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Of course not
having a political philosophy other than one to tear things down is apparently
what many Argentinians want these days, since “something” has to be done to save
the country in its current economic and financial travails. Younger voters
flocked to the Milei side simply because he “promised” to do something “different”;
in a <i>Reuters</i> story we hear this: </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>“Perhaps not everything Milei says I agree
with or can identify with but he is our future," said Irene Sosa, a
20-year-old student celebrating outside his election bunker. "Milei
represents a future for young people.”</i> <span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Maybe, but to me it sounds very much
like white “Millennials” who <i>Mother Jones</i>
notes are being sucked in by <span class="s1">YouTube videos that are “short and
memorable, with quick cuts, zippy graphics, and cool sound effects” hosted by far-right
carnival barkers short on facts, loud in fear-mongering and have the same level
of moral and ethical bankruptcy as does the political “philosophy” they push. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1">It is incomprehensible to me how anyone cannot understand the difference
between left-wing discourse which tries to influence you with the truth and
exposing the hypocrisy of the right, and the empty propaganda of the right that
only attempts to inspire hate and paranoia. It’s like in comedy films when
someone being interrogated is being “tortured” by listening to music that
drives him crazy; for the far-right fanatic, hearing the truth is what drives
them “crazy.”</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Still, you would
think that “sensible” voters who ordinarily would be more cautious (and that
would include the 44 percent who didn’t vote for Milei); but many of them voted
for Milei anyways simply because although he was an “unknown” and that made him
perhaps a little “scary,” what he could do couldn’t be any worse than the way
things are today. <i>Something</i> “radical”
has to be done.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Of course doing
something “different” means upending the “socialist” agenda of a country that
had a long history of semi-fascist rule from the Peronist faction that still has power
today. Argentina’s current problems date back to the 1990s when it sought help from the
IMF to help fend off international creditors. The IMF forced Argentina to peg
its currency, the peso, to the U.S. dollar and institute various financial
reforms. For a time the Argentinian economy showed strong improvement until the
1998 recession, when the strictures imposed by the IMF made it impossible for
the Argentinian government to be “creative” in dealing with an economic downturn. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But other issues
included failure to use surpluses to pay down interest debt, and the banking
system making imprudent decisions that once the recession hit, and the peso
depreciated, the creditors came back with vengeance as no one believed things
would get “better.” As <i>Foreign Policy</i>
recently pointed out, the “endless” economic crisis since then has “never went
away.” Inflation is out of control and poverty is on the rise; and access to
foreign credit is all dried up.</span></p>
<p class="texttext1fzle" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ok, so what
does Milei plan on doing to turn the country around? Well, at least he understands
what the people who voted for him want him to tackle: "The model of
decadence has come to an end, there's no going back. We have monumental
problems ahead: inflation, lack of work, and poverty. The situation is critical
and there is no place for tepid half-measures." That’s a start.</span></p>
<p class="texttext1fzle" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The rest is
not exactly clear, since Milei—fearing losing voters with more radical talk—has
been less upfront about it. According to the credit rating agency <i>Fitch Ratings</i>, “Milei has proposed fast
and radical measures to address these imbalances, including dramatic cuts to
federal spending, full dollarization, closure of the central bank and
privatizations. Yet the dubious technical feasibility of these plans and the
recent moderation in his rhetoric make it uncertain how ambitious an agenda he
will pursue.” </span></p>
<p class="texttext1fzle" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Well, at least Trump is on his "team," and that is enough for some people viewing things from afar. The “dollarization”
proposal means completely abandoning the peso and using U.S. currency instead; unfortunately, as some critics have noted, the question then is where is Milei going
to find all those dollar bills, since Argentina has very little in its own
reserves. Compounding that, goes on <i>Fitch,</i></span></p>
<p class="texttext1fzle" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Milei’s emphatic victory offers him
political capital to take bold action, but a lack of political muscle will be a
hindrance. Libertad Avanza will have just 38 of 257 seats in the Chamber of
Deputies and eight of 72 in the Senate, and alliances with factions of the
Juntos Por El Cambio coalition will not deliver a majority. The party has no
provincial governorships. A 40% poverty rate highlights a fragile social
backdrop for painful adjustment, while Peronism’s enduring political machinery
and sway over powerful groups such as unions could be a source of resistance.</i></span></p>
<p class="texttext1fzle" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Of course if
the voters were actually confident that he had all the right answers, they would
have voted in a majority of his “party” to control the legislature, but they
were not in a “radical” enough mood for that. Milei presumably can
find allies in the conservative parties, and while that may not be enough to
pass more radical proposals, it seems likely that an electorate
angry for something to change may be enough to pass some measures--the full dollarization
of the economy probably not among them.</span></p>
<p class="texttext1fzle" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">For now, the
Trump-backed Milei has a grace period, helped by his “culture war” views on abortion
and gun ownership. Many inside the country, however, expect that if “real
change” doesn’t happen quick enough, Milei’s “honeymoon” period will be a
relatively short one. </span></p>
Mark W. Kittellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767307312025397299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201311015829526785.post-58473218283502689682023-12-03T21:15:00.000-08:002023-12-06T04:51:02.080-08:00Packers beat the odds by winning third straight against an opponent they were expected to lose to; now Love and company have free sailing against losing teams the rest of the way<p><br /></p><p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">In today’s Sunday
Night game the Packers were facing the defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs,
who admittedly have not been playing like one this year. Given the way the Packers
have been playing recently, they had more than a chance given <span> </span>the unpredictable way the once potent Patrick
Mahomes-led offense has played this year; two weeks ago against the Eagles, the
Chiefs led 17-7 at halftime and failed to score in the second half, losing 21-17;
offensive penalties and dropped passes have been blamed. <span> </span>The one silver lining in the Chiefs play this
year is their defense, fourth in the league in yards allowed and third in
points allowed, just over 16 a game. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But as last week
against the Lions, Jordan Love led the Packers on two long touchdown drives on
their first possessions of the game. I listened to the game on the Packers
radio network, so with Wayne Larrivee calling the game, it was all predictably
exciting stuff. Love again started off quick, completing 10 of 11 for 109
yards. Twice the Chiefs answered by driving inside the Packers 10, but three
sacks against an offensive line that had previously allowed the fewest in the
league stunted the drives which ending in field goals. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Packers didn’t
waste time with a little over 2 minutes left in the half. Patrick Taylor took
the ball for a 24 yard run to the Chiefs 32 with 32 seconds to play. It was all
quite wild; this was only the fifth possession combined for both teams, characterized
with minimal defensive effort. But a penalty helped put the ball back at the
39, and instead of chancing a missed field goal giving Mahomes a chance for a
Hail Mary pass, the Packers punted to end the half with a 14-6 lead. Love was
13-16 for 121 yards for 2 TDs, but one must note that he was 3-5 for just 12
yards after the first two drives.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">In the second
half against the Lions on Thanksgiving, when the Packers had a 17-point lead,
the Lions dominated the Packers and really only lost the game because of fumble
returned for a touchdown and their coach making a lot of stupid decisions, none
more so than the fake punt deep on the Lions own end that ultimately led to the
Packers only points in the second half. The Chiefs are a pretty good team, and
the question was whether Love and company could take advantage of the surprising
holes in the defense they were facing. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Chiefs didn’t
start off the second half very well, with back-to-back penalties leaving them with
a first-and-25. But on third-and-18 a 27-yard pass to Travis Kelce (and yes,
what’s-her-name was gracing Lambeau with her royal presence) put the Chiefs
back in business. This time the Chiefs put the ball in the end zone, but failed
on a two-point conversion to make it 14-12. How would the Packers answer?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">They did,
converting on a fourth down play followed by a 33-yard pass to Doubs and Watson
catching his second touchdown pass of the game. The Chiefs again answered with
a short TD pass to make it 21-19. A couple of punts was followed by a 40-yard
field goal by Anders Carlson, but with just a five point lead, Mahomes just
need to lead his team to a touchdown and the lead. No turnovers in the game and
the Packers had not intercepted a pass in a few games, and what do you know,
Keisean Nixon intercepted Mahomes. The Packers managed to hang on for another
Carlson field goal to make it 27-19 and the Chiefs needed a touchdown and
two-point conversion to tie.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Want “excitement”?
A 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty after a 10-yard run by Mahomes was “exciting”
for the wrong reasons, as was an apparent fumble recovery returned for a touchdown
called back after a reversal, and then the Chiefs leading rusher Isaiah Pacheco
was kicked out of the game for unsportsmanlike conduct. Mahomes had time from
the Packer 33 to throw four passes into the end zone, and in Aaron Rodgers
fashion misfired on all of them (well, yes with the help of an egregious DPI non-call) and it was all over.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Yes, it was an
impressive win, and all of sudden Jordan Love and the Packers appear to be for
real. Against one of the top defenses in the league, the Packers scored 27
points—a season high against the Chiefs’ defense. That defense allowed a first-year
starter to complete 25 of 36 for 267 yards and 3 TDs and no interceptions.
Either this was just a bad day for a great defense, or they just came up
against a quarterback that somebody in the Packer front office actually saw
something that a lot of people didn’t, including me.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">I don’t know.
Passes that were being intercepted before, like that 33-yard pass to Doubs that
was floated into the air with a prayer, with three Chief defenders surrounding
Doubs, are suddenly not being intercepted, and actually completed. Does this
mean that Love has the “touch” now, or is it simply good luck instead of bad?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But there are
still five games to play for the now 6-6 Packers who beat three teams in a row
that were expected to beat them after the slow start. Now we can possibly say
that the easy schedule now comes into play as the Packers next face four
opponents (including the Giants next week) with losing records and another one
that may have one (the Vikings) by the time the Packers face them playing with
a backup quarterback. Suddenly a 10-win season and the playoffs after a 3-6 start
seems suddenly more than a possibility if Love continues to play the way he is
and the defense follows suit. We shall see. </span></p>
Mark W. Kittellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767307312025397299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201311015829526785.post-77895734589179640012023-11-30T16:37:00.000-08:002023-12-04T11:21:15.757-08:00Trumpists and the far-right in this country hope that you won't "worry" about where they are taking this country<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Sometimes this country
just seems like one gigantic dumpster fire that some idiot set because, well,
they’re just an idiot…</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxkkLuRchpBePoN-A3nHCY6EJNPSBHyf3JnEsv-wzY_Ubbi1-SO3omRP-f5bRKPTc102VIFQMukDCuyMJciKQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>…and
because megalomaniacs think setting the world on fire is fulfilling their “destiny” because they just had a "vision" telling them so…</span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZUeSYfnjPdvMtWKTSoGLB22anWkIJx6Ho_wYveA1ws-k2jqwbjlb7t2ngr7i1yTd5bTkdRx_B9pR6PVIXUYfchEMYKyR6XnZBm6zBC9OrPahd03Kr5NucVSH1GvNTviQduXU0KC959VlXNVZwUytkTp2HVoa67r4zbtYbQv9dOy5vBOS0XxJXiQBvO1vN/s1920/Screenshot%202023-11-27%20152821.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1027" data-original-width="1920" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZUeSYfnjPdvMtWKTSoGLB22anWkIJx6Ho_wYveA1ws-k2jqwbjlb7t2ngr7i1yTd5bTkdRx_B9pR6PVIXUYfchEMYKyR6XnZBm6zBC9OrPahd03Kr5NucVSH1GvNTviQduXU0KC959VlXNVZwUytkTp2HVoa67r4zbtYbQv9dOy5vBOS0XxJXiQBvO1vN/s320/Screenshot%202023-11-27%20152821.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">…like this guy…</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ9hO4R6fLUnxBFoeSqBVXLheiuuJv0kTusA4uR2Pox5tVsRTwutbaXTLgvbNswMxlpUfrWWtcxGdCESLFueW6c9kKI6NGDg2826woKf2p2_PJwbKodf2T4NYtrWeoeR8UVXDvpIHqrzvWTqLmIF3EP_9WDd6J3pwMQTSS0LZFZ0oAGUXzTTKdxcQejn46/s700/8afb00c1a0a5f64f5d2a20839a9e1829b7-16-donald-trump-2.rhorizontal.w700.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="467" data-original-width="700" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ9hO4R6fLUnxBFoeSqBVXLheiuuJv0kTusA4uR2Pox5tVsRTwutbaXTLgvbNswMxlpUfrWWtcxGdCESLFueW6c9kKI6NGDg2826woKf2p2_PJwbKodf2T4NYtrWeoeR8UVXDvpIHqrzvWTqLmIF3EP_9WDd6J3pwMQTSS0LZFZ0oAGUXzTTKdxcQejn46/s320/8afb00c1a0a5f64f5d2a20839a9e1829b7-16-donald-trump-2.rhorizontal.w700.webp" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">…who tells us if
he gets another shot at being the man with the nuclear codes, he will unleash
the Insurrection Act, that he failed to do on January 6, in Democratic cities. It is just part and parcel of his failure to unite the country in times of “crisis”—this raging narcissist prefers to incite
his supporters into seeing their neighbors as enemies who must be crushed at all
costs, as long as they don’t have to dirty their own hands in that dirty
business, because their laziness begins with their own conscience.<br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">In 2017, Eric
Levitz wrote in <i>New York Magazine</i>
that because Trump is not of the “political class,” he had not at the time “learned
the disciplined use of language” and what “certain words mean in context.” If anything,
Trump has become even worse with his use of violent and threatening words.
While polls apparently reveal a shocking number of voters find Trump’s violent rhetoric “appealing,”
Senate Republicans fear that they will again lose the Senate in 2024 if
enough voters know that Trump in office needs some kind of “check” given his
unbalanced personality and total lack of moral and ethical values.</span></p>
<p class="clay-paragraph" data-editable="text" data-uri="nymag.com/intelligencer/_components/clay-paragraph/instances/cj405uai3004i4qyelgulyn0e@published" data-word-count="64" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Levitz pointed out that Trump “is suffering from an obsessive
disorder that renders him helplessly self-destructive. Trump has stomped all
over the naïveté defense. All that remains is the insanity plea. To plausibly
deny that the president is a criminal, Republicans must stipulate that he’s out
of his mind. Which is to say: There is no credible explanation for Trump’s
conduct that is compatible with the idea that he is fit for high office.” </span></p>
<p class="clay-paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">As we see
today, that has not only not changed, but unlike any other candidates for the
presidency in the past he has not the dignity to step aside for much greater
failures of conduct. Even Al Franken was obliged to resign his Senate seat simply
because of a high school prank-level incident years ago; yet even the “liberal”
media has given Trump a pass on two-dozen claims against Trump ranging from “groping”
to rape. </span></p><p class="clay-paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Why? Apparently because it knows Trump just laughs at them, and his
supporters don’t think it’s a “big deal” so they won’t be listening anyways. However, the "liberal" media knows that they do have a fanatical audience of gender activists willing to eat their own just to make a "power point," even if it means being destructive to their
own agenda. </span></p>
<p class="clay-paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">We see that
Disney films like <i>The Marvels</i> and the
next batch of “superhero” films also promise to crap on their core
male audience with more characters they are not supposed to identify with, but film critics and activists
will applaud that before they go home, not realizing that the "audience" they were trying to reach was not listening and didn't care. What happened next? The film tanked at the box office.<br /></span></p><p class="clay-paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">We also saw this in the 2016 election, when
everyone assumed Hillary Clinton was going to win the election, not knowing that 53 percent
of white women would vote for Trump, and the result was the appointment of three
far-right Supreme Court justices and a country blanketed with the same in the
federal courts. </span></p><p class="clay-paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Some people think that is a “good” thing, of course; but then
again, when Republican states (putting aside the question of whether Republicans
even have a national governing philosophy that isn’t simply characterized by
publicity stunts and chaos) are taking away free speech (often couched in “anti-CRT”
rhetoric) and voting rights, it isn't so obvious at first that where they are taking the country is a single-party authoritarian regime.</span></p>
<p class="clay-paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">We are told
in the <i>Washington Post</i> (“democracy dies in darkness”) that in the expectation that he wins in 2024<br /></span></p>
<p class="clay-paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>…discussions<b> </b>underway<b> </b>reflect
Trump’s determination to harness the power of the presidency to exact revenge
on those who have challenged or criticized him if he returns to the White
House. The former president has frequently threatened to take punitive steps
against his perceived enemies, arguing that doing so would be justified by the
current prosecutions against him. Trump has claimed without evidence that the
criminal charges he is facing — a total of 91 across four state and federal
indictments — were made up to damage him politically</i>.</span></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Not only that,
but Trump threatens to invoke the Insurrection Act nationally, basically
imposing martial law on Democratic cities. He announced that <span> </span>“We will root out the communists, Marxists,
fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines
of our country.” Nazi Germany, anyone? No wonder Deutsche Bank officials have been desperate to misrepresent their dealings with their former "client" in court and expressed no interest in his falsified financial reports; they would then be seen as colluding in his crimes.<br /></span></p><p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">It doesn’t matter what is true or not;
racists and those with fascist inclinations are hungry for their beliefs to be converted into “concrete action.” Thus Trump went on to
say that “the real threat is not from the radical right. The real threat is
from the radical left, and it’s growing every day.” So while he zeros in on the
“radical left,” the radical right in fact only grows in prominence, now acting
with “lawful” impunity. </span></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">And like as
occurred during his first presidency, this country's credibility and power on the world stage, as it did with our international
allies, will suffer. The country's access to natural resources and fair trade will suffer because of the foolish belief that “The threat from outside forces is far less
sinister, dangerous and grave than the threat from within.” This is the talk of
a white nationalist who actually hates this country and the principles it was
founded on. Trump merely “governs” in the same authoritarian way he ran his “business.”
He knows no other way.</span></p><p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">His recent announcement that he is again to going to try
to repeal the Affordable Care Act is a non-starter for even many Republicans,
since it has been noted that there has been no serious discussions to “replace”
it. Trump’s only wants to repeal it out of simple vindictiveness toward Barack
Obama, since Trump himself has no similar legacy to his name, other than being
a complete asshole.</span></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Meanwhile, his
toady House Speaker Mike Johnson, the “What, me worry?” guy…</span></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhipp_WE2O19ye8WbPjq9jpU05JHPCpWuQjJxn42RDub1N3MBzD3n6nq-bHyjLT8OR39iJN7g3irPgCvjFqyu8cjTIPCL6PYUMQG3qC_BasS3tsVL7cse8rtSaecIGcZ25cUK2cYtRRorucaAyNZlDyH3ya62f00bD8ld12Rp9ttKcrWmMhJzyvPNSG-AW0/s1120/231025-mike-johnson-jm-0528-08fa44.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="747" data-original-width="1120" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhipp_WE2O19ye8WbPjq9jpU05JHPCpWuQjJxn42RDub1N3MBzD3n6nq-bHyjLT8OR39iJN7g3irPgCvjFqyu8cjTIPCL6PYUMQG3qC_BasS3tsVL7cse8rtSaecIGcZ25cUK2cYtRRorucaAyNZlDyH3ya62f00bD8ld12Rp9ttKcrWmMhJzyvPNSG-AW0/s320/231025-mike-johnson-jm-0528-08fa44.webp" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">…continues to
promise nothing but continuing chaos from the House of Representatives on the
budget impasse that is entirely of the far-right’s need for public relations
stunts. Johnson has no real credibility within his own caucus; as Liz Cheney suggests in her new book, Johnson is apt to be a dishonest conspiracy theorist whose word to those who believe in the truth cannot be trusted, and he was just picked
because the far-right of the party believes he can be used, and he was the
lesser of many evils that so-called moderates could stomach because of his “nice
guy” persona. </span></p><p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Of course that is only one part of the problem; what the country really
needs is someone who wouldn't “worry” about doing this to Trump and the far-right:</span></p><p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl3BArcmVYGwz818k4k0JWbABGPjCW6HSpryqBfFqCDue8h5tI0sxpD0DrJwW6i6R-Q5Xf1YAbDnlQIKVG6RseZ189aew6z6ysnZL72hBQgwiAEywMKLw5WuzA_YeU2MQVKoqvsYdMjlkSKoz1Ug47D8EkXbCV3oY6kfRmSjkAvHoU_Y4wNTNQ80rOb32a/s1200/D6QzETkVUAAT3Mq.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="942" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl3BArcmVYGwz818k4k0JWbABGPjCW6HSpryqBfFqCDue8h5tI0sxpD0DrJwW6i6R-Q5Xf1YAbDnlQIKVG6RseZ189aew6z6ysnZL72hBQgwiAEywMKLw5WuzA_YeU2MQVKoqvsYdMjlkSKoz1Ug47D8EkXbCV3oY6kfRmSjkAvHoU_Y4wNTNQ80rOb32a/s320/D6QzETkVUAAT3Mq.jpg" width="251" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>
Mark W. Kittellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767307312025397299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201311015829526785.post-35806612106366491102023-11-26T14:11:00.000-08:002023-11-26T23:37:49.886-08:00Sometimes a film can tell us more truth by simply telling a story rather than with a self-serving "agenda"<p> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">It appears that theater chains and Disney are still trying to shove <i>The Marvels</i> down people's unwilling throats as the only film this weekend being shown on at least 4,000 screens. The film only continues to tank, becoming the first MCU film to drop out of the top-5 in its third weekend. But that's not my "problem," and although Iman Vellani says that is not her "problem" either, she should consider the effect on her career, adding <i>The Marvels</i> debacle with her own <i>Ms. Marvel</i> show being the worst-rated MCU show on Disney+. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But thank god there are other ways to pass the time if films are your thing. It took me awhile to make the decision to spend the money on it, but since Rainer Werner
Fassbinder’s <i>Satan’s Brew</i> is only available on Blu-ray on the UK distributor Arrow Films recently released third 7-film Fassbinder collection of mostly his lesser<i>-</i>known films<i>, </i>I figured I<i> </i>should just do it before it went OOP and third-party sellers began their extortionist ways.<i> <br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Satan’s Brew</i> is
Fassbinder’s only true comedy in his entire oeuvre,<span> </span>and a “screwball” comedy as black as black
can get—meaning that it is not a proper introduction to those unfamiliar with
Fassbinder’s work, as people will think he must have been “nuts” to make a film
like this. But then again, I suspect people would also be left with the same incorrect of assessment of Martin Scorcese's output if the first film of his they saw was <i>After Hours</i>. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">I really didn’t
need the rest on Blu-ray, but I had never seen one of these films, <i>Mother Kusters Goes to
Heaven</i>, and having now done so, it provides just another reason why Fassbinder is my favorite director. Some people compare <i>Mother Kusters</i> examination of irresponsible tabloid journalism in West Germany at the time to that
of <i>The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum</i>,
but in <i>Mother</i> what eventually happens
to Mother Kusters (in the German cut) is ultimately more tragic as Fassbinder also critiques the political
opportunists and radicals that use her for their own purposes. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The film begins as we learn that Mother Kusters’
husband had just killed a supervisor at work, apparently after being told that he was going to be part
of a mass lay-off at the business he worked at, and then killed himself. Mr. Kusters had
never intimated that he might do this to family or coworkers, so it was assumed
that he had just “snapped” when he heard the news. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Many saw the incident as the
powerlessness of workers in a capitalist society. Mother Kusters’ home is
invaded by journalists who claim they just want the “truth”; here a photojournalist
promises to write a sympathetic article as he takes photos of Mother Kusters as
she sadly conducts her daily existence, reflecting on life without her husband:</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Instead, the
article that does comes out portrays her husband as a deranged monster, which
of course angers Mother Kusters. She is soon left without anyone to console her
as her adult children all leave her alone in the house. This leaves her vulnerable to opportunists who wish to use her; she is contacted by an
apparently well-off married couple who profess to be sympathetic to the “cause” in
which her husband died, and they write an article from the perspective of the
abused “proletariat.” </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">They turn out to be members of the German Communist Party, and they
invite her to speak at a sparsely-attended meeting, where Mother Kusters gives
a heart-felt speech about what a good man her husband was and how he was abused
by an unjust system against the working class—or at least that was what she was
told by her handlers:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRSzGoHjk0Uka4NXyVdpizYhdpnHh2OtQ-9-StY3smRSX4-viappIvwQT4rWMJMl1Ivy1crLRVbuafElN5whC7SDqxtW3sN9w185nIRb1MeBfBPskAOz0GybmE6XShZ-jxUWCSQVUzZzgSLGzFLFaRiAOfymJVgEV7mpPTUgSEkoKnZkiZa5xW9QG1TpFz/s1334/Screenshot%202023-11-22%20102601.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="948" data-original-width="1334" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRSzGoHjk0Uka4NXyVdpizYhdpnHh2OtQ-9-StY3smRSX4-viappIvwQT4rWMJMl1Ivy1crLRVbuafElN5whC7SDqxtW3sN9w185nIRb1MeBfBPskAOz0GybmE6XShZ-jxUWCSQVUzZzgSLGzFLFaRiAOfymJVgEV7mpPTUgSEkoKnZkiZa5xW9QG1TpFz/s320/Screenshot%202023-11-22%20102601.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But afterward
she encounters a young “radical” who tells her that these people are frauds and
he can help her get real “justice.” At least part of that seems to be true,
when Mother Kusters is essentially told that her usefulness to the Party is
over, as her purpose was to provide campaign fodder for the coming election.
With no one at home to advise or keep a watch on her, Mother Kusters decides to
seek out the radical activist, who unbeknownst to her hatches the idea of an armed invasion of the office
where<span> </span>the photojournalist works and hold
everyone hostage until "their" demands are met. Mother Kusters obviously didn't sign-up for this:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9vXfHuj4QFQjjWicC88uFM8BtGKjkKdllmXiHZlL7KHU5A-BX71bFR52uK3HxB1x-ZcGj39Kjn5ry0urxq4W42Q5aHl6NSBdCwjnAOLJTJARa9eJlCzG7v0G4RkzzGwWWT1_AnDpnz-4GB2l1yG7hwmHub6Cr_lMREFi8vNYpb3lzVj2B0yijWtjsdZPf/s1273/Screenshot%202023-11-22%20102854.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="901" data-original-width="1273" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9vXfHuj4QFQjjWicC88uFM8BtGKjkKdllmXiHZlL7KHU5A-BX71bFR52uK3HxB1x-ZcGj39Kjn5ry0urxq4W42Q5aHl6NSBdCwjnAOLJTJARa9eJlCzG7v0G4RkzzGwWWT1_AnDpnz-4GB2l1yG7hwmHub6Cr_lMREFi8vNYpb3lzVj2B0yijWtjsdZPf/s320/Screenshot%202023-11-22%20102854.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">For European audiences Fassbinder discarded the climax that he originally filmed, although he chose to ad a written coda (rather than filming it) that told viewers that after the terrorists left the building with
their hostages, Mother Kusters was shot by unidentified parties (probably the
polizei), but even then Fassbinder could not help but add a note of sarcasm to
her death, as it is implied that her daughter, who is a singer, uses the occasion as a
publicity stunt as she poses to be photographed cradling her mother in her
arms:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Sorry, wrong
“movie.” Fassbinder decided to keep the original filmed ending for the American
release, and here we see him treating the radicals not as “terrorists” but as
buffoons who stage a sit-in that is ignored by everyone inside the office:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2cE_15zNhzyN1BgYURRrkUrHpg5BPnNJkvF580Jgp0wQLNqO33qJjk0bzpnt1Iji2fNx6F05mod6mS6lkP_ylLEpEuQ8Z_ZblCN34yrm_kmBSlWs04KcdF2UQOeRC0-xQklq2YZ4VGNjzmepDiKjHSRo7eJH3FFgxl7_cgasy8p8Hx-FuadYEnEYuRnop/s1320/Screenshot%202023-11-22%20103830.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="942" data-original-width="1320" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2cE_15zNhzyN1BgYURRrkUrHpg5BPnNJkvF580Jgp0wQLNqO33qJjk0bzpnt1Iji2fNx6F05mod6mS6lkP_ylLEpEuQ8Z_ZblCN34yrm_kmBSlWs04KcdF2UQOeRC0-xQklq2YZ4VGNjzmepDiKjHSRo7eJH3FFgxl7_cgasy8p8Hx-FuadYEnEYuRnop/s320/Screenshot%202023-11-22%20103830.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The radicals
themselves get bored sitting there pointlessly and leave Mother Kusters alone
in her thoughts. In one ending (for the European release) she goes to “heaven”
as a “martyr” for the “cause,” but the other “heaven” is when the janitor walks
in and tells her he can’t leave unless she does, but she can come back the next day
if she wants; he is a widower and lonely too, and their conversation eventually
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<p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Contemporary American critics saw the film as a "comedy" because of this ending, but the ending that Fassbinder used instead for the German release of the film gives the exact opposite interpretation of the proceedings, given the reality of what was going on in West Germany at the time.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Although
Fassbinder was himself critical of what he regarded as a society that had not
yet come to grips with its Nazi past (even electing a former Nazi, Kurt Georg
Kiesinger, as chancellor in 1966), and was not unsympathetic to the aims of the
radical left, he could not help but critique what he saw as the ultimate
pointlessness of the activities of the radical political and student movements—especially
those that sought to achieve their aims through violence. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The
Baader-Meinhof Gang, which had come into existence a few years earlier and had
a similar evolution as that of the Weather Underground in the U.S., isn’t
mentioned specifically, but as in <span> </span><i>The Third Generation</i>, Fassbinder saw
their activities to be counterproductive if not clownish, and its "third generation" had not learned from the mistakes of the first two.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">That was then,
and this isn’t the “revolutionary” Sixties which spawned not just radical left groups like the Weather Underground and the SLA (the group that kidnapped Patty Hearst), but in
response to changes in society also came neo-Nazi and white supremacist
groups engaged in bank robberies and murder like The Order in the Eighties and the Aryan
Republican Army in the Nineties—the latter which was suspected of aiding and bankrolling
Timothy McVeigh. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The difference
between the “left” and the “right” terrorists was that “left” claimed to seek
change in an unjust society, and what the right was “seeking” was somewhat
unclear, trying undo “change” and reestablish<span>
</span>white privilege and control as the law of the land. The conservative
Eighth Circuit Court in Texas is doing its part “lawfully,” by further
damaging the Voting Rights Act, declaring that only the federal government
(you know, like a Trump administration) can file lawsuits charging racial
discrimination in voting laws because the Act doesn’t “explicitly say” that
private persons or organizations can do so.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But as Fassbinder implied in <i>Mother Kusters</i>, who can you
really believe or trust in this day and age who legitimately represents “justice” that at least
has a moral and ethical angle that isn’t entirely self-serving or hypocritical? Take for instance the "MeToo" movement, which has become little more than a vehicle for self-serving narcissists out for revenge for mostly imagined or misinterpreted "wrongs" done to them.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Why would anyone would "trust" the motivations of the likes of House Speaker Mike Johnson and Marjorie Taylor Green, who are
aiding and abetting far-right conspiracies with the highly selective release of
the invasion of the Capitol Building by the January 6 insurrectionists?
One far-right YouTuber interpreted one video as showing the insurrectionists
were being “respectful” of law enforcement; OK, so what was so
“respectful” about breaking down doors to get into the Capitol Building in the
first place and interrupting lawmakers? </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">If anything, the events of January 6 were counterproductive, because it embarrassed some Republican Senators who previously intended to question the election results. How far-right
conspiracies develop out of willful ignorance of the activities of the insurrectionists is shown here:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDrrZ_-3Quo1hnCL27FGLPTXaAu4II161abKViRXcyGHc5IcGfb3BiqPlF5V8gKxJ4Wh4cUO0vKroAZxtGuJekdrPm7O6_EpsfVaJAypXjmOIkFUNQ7Pw-UcWGxMEG5OMyh5OC63JFLppQgWRjf3pqQ8Ptakjoy8hcdiOPB5ENUj8s2vg2RO6dx0FNMJhZ/s849/Screenshot%202023-11-22%20140252.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="849" data-original-width="530" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDrrZ_-3Quo1hnCL27FGLPTXaAu4II161abKViRXcyGHc5IcGfb3BiqPlF5V8gKxJ4Wh4cUO0vKroAZxtGuJekdrPm7O6_EpsfVaJAypXjmOIkFUNQ7Pw-UcWGxMEG5OMyh5OC63JFLppQgWRjf3pqQ8Ptakjoy8hcdiOPB5ENUj8s2vg2RO6dx0FNMJhZ/s320/Screenshot%202023-11-22%20140252.png" width="200" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">By the way, “RT”
stands for Russia Today, which is the Kremlin propaganda organ whose principle
function in the U.S. is sow chaos and disrupt a functional democracy, which of
course is why so many Republicans appear to be Russian propagandists themselves and
supporters of authoritarian government. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Of course propaganda can go both ways. Since the beginning of the Israeli-Hamas conflict, Jewish groups in this country claim that antisemitic acts have increased almost 400 percent in this country, which is a bloated way of saying four times more than normal. But as we see, what an "antisemitic" act is can merely be criticism of Israeli use of force in Gaza or anyone expressing support for Palestinians. Regardless of the side you are on, it just seems more like gaslighting and suppressing freedom of speech.<br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Where this
country is going is very worrisome. A new NBC News poll show Trump leading
Biden by 48 to 37. Frankly, I wish Biden would not run for reelection and ride
off into the sunset with his dignity intact; at the present time, it really
does seem as if his age is clouding his judgment. But the poll also showed that
a “generic” Democratic candidate other than Biden would be instantly ahead of
Trump by a 46-40 margin.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">What does that
mean? The only “logical” explanation is that many people are not using their
heads when making their decisions, just their “gut” feelings. The majority
wants an alternative to Trump, they just don’t think that Biden is the "man" anymore because they don't "trust" his ability to make "judgments." I suspect, however, that some of this has to do with whether they "trust" Kamala Harris if Biden passes away during a second term, if she is still the vice president. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">A majority of people know that another Trump administration would be
a nightmare turned all too real, given his stated zeal to exact “revenge” on
all his perceived “enemies” rather than learning anything from his moral and
ethical failures. That this country has allowed itself into a "pick your poison" choice shows just how disastrous it was to elect a completely unfit individual like Trump was in the first place.<br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">What is worse is
like those people with political agendas in <i>Mother
Kusters</i>, Trump doesn’t really give a damn about “the people” in the
individuality—he is only using the generality to advance his own domestic terroristic
agenda, because a supreme narcissist only uses the hot air of blind supporters
to inflate his own sense of grandiosity. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Of course the
result of all of this is no one has any “trust” in the “system” because
everyone is pointing the finger at someone else, or whoever they are told to. No one trusts the motives of the
other, although the motives of Republicans are certainly more destructive than
Democrats on the surface. Maybe people would just be happier if they said we don't want what any of you are selling, and vote for anyone who claims to be a "moderate" without a partisan agenda causing divisiveness and hate.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">So you see you can learn something about the world from films that do not preach to you or have an "agenda," but just show you the world as it is, not they way you imagine it to be. <br /></span></p>
Mark W. Kittellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767307312025397299noreply@blogger.com0